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Hawaii's Mars Simulations Are Canceled (theatlantic.com)

The dome where crew members practiced red-planet missions will now be converted to a simulated moon base. Excerpt from a report: For the last five years, a small Mars colony thrived in Hawaii, many miles away from civilization. The Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation, or HI-SEAS, was carried out in a small white dome nestled along the slope of a massive volcano called Mauna Loa. The habitat usually housed six people at a time, for as long as eight months. They prepared freeze-dried meals, took 30-second showers to conserve water, and wore space suits every time they left the dome. To replicate the communication gap between Earth and Mars, they waited 20 minutes for their emails to reach their family members, and another 20 to hear back. Sometimes, as they drifted off to sleep, with nothing but silence in their ears, they really believed they were on Mars.

In February of this year, something went wrong. The latest and sixth mission was just four days in when one of the crew members was carried out on a stretcher and taken to a hospital, an Atlantic investigation revealed in June. There had been a power outage in the habitat, and some troubleshooting ended with one of the residents sustaining an electric shock. The rest of the crew was evacuated, too. There was some discussion of returning -- the injured person was treated and released in the same day -- but another crew member felt the conditions weren't safe enough and decided to withdraw. The Mars simulation couldn't continue with a crew as small as three, and the entire program was put on hold. [...]

41 of 87 comments (clear)

  1. Arctic. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If you want something close to a Mars simulation, go to the Arctic.
    Hawaii is too warm.

    1. Re:Arctic. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      It's too uncomfortable. People only stay there months at a time. There's no groceries, communications are awful. It's totally unlike the wonderful journey to Mars where people are going to live under great beautiful domes and robots will mine food and oxygen until the planet has been fully terraformed.

    2. Re:Arctic. by Thud457 · · Score: 4, Funny

      At least this incident didn't involve Paulie Shore & Stephen Baldwin.

      --

      the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

    3. Re:Arctic. by ChromeAeonuim · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It's not so much the warmth as it is the rocky terrain. At high elevations Mauna Loa is rocky, barren, and sort of Mars-like, and it can get chilly up there (although nothing ever approaching Martian cold obviously).

      I think the biggest thing is probably that you're still close enough to the medical facilities in Hilo if something goes wrong. This was largely a psych study, and there's no way you're getting an IRB to approve a something where people might actually die. If something goes wrong in Hawai'i, you'll be fine, but if something goes wrong in the Arctic, maybe not.

    4. Re:Arctic. by helpfulcorn · · Score: 1

      I don't know, I think we may be better off if they *were* actually sent to Mars

    5. Re:Arctic. by arglebargle_xiv · · Score: 2

      It was actually a very effective simulation of what would happen: At the first sign of trouble, the whole thing fell apart. Conclusion: We've got a long way to go before we can have people living on Mars.

  2. they really believed they were on Mars. by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 1

    >> they really believed they were on Mars.

    So...a loony bin financed some random rich dude? Was there any actual science?

    >> they waited 20 minutes for their emails to reach their family members, and another 20 to hear back

    If you think that's a long delay, it's a good thing you're not someone who tries to text me - especially about work.

    1. Re:they really believed they were on Mars. by Bobrick · · Score: 1

      If it's work related, I'm currently simulating life on a deep-space probe and it seems we lost all power systems.

    2. Re:they really believed they were on Mars. by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      So...a loony bin

      It is called a dude ranch. And if you have to ask, you're too poor to understand.

  3. Anybody remember Capricorn 1 by rossdee · · Score: 2

    Sam Waterston was one of the astronauts
    Hal Holbrook was the bad guy in charge of NASA

    1. Re:Anybody remember Capricorn 1 by moehoward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Hal Holbrook was not the REAL bad guy... OJ in the sleep chamber with the kitchen knife!

      --
      "If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid." - Epictetus
    2. Re:Anybody remember Capricorn 1 by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 2

      OJ wasn't a great actor, by any stretch of the imagination. But when I watch a movie he was in nowadays, I see things a little differently in hindsight, for whatever reason.

      Like in Naked Gun - they're doing a riff on the train station scene from The Untouchables. OJ saves the baby... and then spikes it like a football.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    3. Re: Anybody remember Capricorn 1 by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      [Allegedly.]

  4. Missed opportunity by Nethemas+the+Great · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If you set up a hab on Mars you surely aren't able to just go home because of an electrical burn, nor malfunctioning equipment. You have to tough it out at the very least until a favorable transfer window, and presumably in most cases for the duration of the mission. Tell them folks to go take their 30-second shower and get back to work. Use the opportunity to learn how to deal with things going to sh*t. I can all but guarantee they will on Mars.

    --
    Two of my imaginary friends reproduced once ... with negative results.
    1. Re:Missed opportunity by sunking2 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Maybe she was over reacting, maybe not, and while it didn't get to this point nobody is going to be impressed when they see, 'died of electrocution while pretending to live on Mars' on your headstone.

      If you're going to take any of this seriously then that should include the people running it taking it seriously, which she didn't seem was happening when they were forced to break the chain and call 911 themselves and couldn't get a hold of the on duty doctor.

    2. Re:Missed opportunity by Kulahan · · Score: 4, Informative

      This was nothing more than a study of the mental/emotional effects of being on Mars, as well as a study of how some of the mechanical and procedural systems might work on Mars. They got plenty of data on that.

      For a first run, this was about as good as one could hope, but with systems that haven't yet been refined for the unique challenges presented by living on Mars, there's no good reason to let people suffer and potentially die with such an early iteration.

    3. Re:Missed opportunity by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yeah ... You're a genius. Also if someone crashes a flight simulator then we should light them on fire. I mean what's the point of a simulation if it doesn't have all the real world consequences!

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    4. Re:Missed opportunity by hey! · · Score: 4, Interesting

      You could even say this was realistic -- more realistic than anyone signed on for.

      If you read first hand accounts of voyages from the Age of Sail, one of the things that's striking is how much long distance travel depended on human life being cheap. In Richard Henry Dana's Two Years Before the Mast, he recounts a journey in which he departed Boston on August 14 and dropped anchor in Santa Barbara on January 19, five months later. Because it's a sailing ship, the sailors have to climb the ice-covered rigging in a storm to tie and untie knots. Sailors are swept of the deck walking from the fo'c'sle to the galley for a meal, and in a gale at night there's nothing that can be done about it. Injury and death at rates that would unacceptable to modern sensibilities were literally just the price of doing business.

      The practical implication for a Mars mission, which due both to costs and launch windows would have to survive for many months, is that the crew roster is going to have to be heavy on medical expertise to meet modern expectations of safety. If you're a youngster with ambitions of being on the first Mars mission, get an undergraduate degree in engineering or Earth science and then an MD.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    5. Re:Missed opportunity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      ^This. Yes, Mars requires risk and some people may die. Taking chances while you're still on earth is just macho B.S. Work safe everybody.

    6. Re:Missed opportunity by Mal-2 · · Score: 1

      tl;dr: The first trip to Mars will be all, or almost all, doctors with hobbies.

      --
      How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
    7. Re:Missed opportunity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Wish I had a mod point for you. The point is that they WEREN'T on Mars, and are collecting data on what can go wrong, and they got it. If an emergency makes your Mars LARP mortally dangerous, then roleplaying yourself to death or permanent injury is asinine. Value of human life aside, the team already clearly accomplished your goal.

    8. Re:Missed opportunity by Aighearach · · Score: 2

      Well, or the other lesson from the Age of Sail; conscript criminals.

    9. Re: Missed opportunity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Welp, I'm convinced. Time to skip flight simulators and just throw pilots into multi-billion-dollar flying machines, because without truly endangering their lives it won't be ~accurate~.

    10. Re:Missed opportunity by hey! · · Score: 1

      Or political dissidents. China could do this with it's "social credit score". Take someone whose life is literally considered worthless to society and give them a chance to get out of the red. As it stands it's kind of a Catch-22: you are so socially disabled by a low social credit score you can't rehabilitate yourself.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    11. Re:Missed opportunity by Tablizer · · Score: 2

      Yes, we do miss Opportunity.

    12. Re:Missed opportunity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Agreed. We learn a lot from these episodes. Even if they have to cut things short unexpectedly.

      Why did a crew member get shocked? Design flaw? Protocol issue? Other..

      What 2nd crew member becoming ill related to that event? Circumstantial timing? Habitat issue identified?

      All things being equal, this is proper approach forward. I just hope they're back to it soon, with more simulations.

    13. Re:Missed opportunity by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      No, currently they're just doing 1 year bans on premium modes of travel.

      They've adopted wording that makes it sound like you won't be able to rehabilitate yourself. But they might already have a plan for where those people are going to disappear to.

      Consider this: The population of China is so large, and the government's power so opaque, they don't even need to enact a policy to come up with enough people to man a space colonization project. They can just assign somebody to choose people, and be done with that stage. They could select tens of thousands of people that way, it would be as hard as "click click click submit."

    14. Re: Missed opportunity by Kulahan · · Score: 1

      If this were even remotely true, then VR horror games wouldnâ(TM)t be nearly as terrifying as they are. Turns out when youâ(TM)re all wrapped up in something, itâ(TM)s easy to get your mind in a place where it genuinely believes your experience is the true reality.

  5. Re: Thanks in a way & why, lol... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    What happened to only posting about hosts when it's on-topic? This story is about Mars simulations being cancelled. It has nothing to do with DNS or hosts. Go away.

  6. Genius! by Donwulff · · Score: 1

    Mars is dangerous, so let's switch it to Moon instead. I'm sure that will fix faulty electrical connections and poor chain of command...

  7. Zealot Express by Tablizer · · Score: 1

    So...a loony bin financed [by] some random rich dude?

    I suspect Mars will be first colonized by cultists/zealots of some kind, similar to how Utah was colonized by Mormons, who didn't get along with their neighbors when they first tried to settle further east. (Both sides point fingers, I won't pick sides here.)

    Cultists will fund themselves and accept the risk. "Normal" people would typically not be so motivated.

    1. Re: Zealot Express by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      They seem to have instead settled successfully, not given up. Sorry Ivan, you're gonna need to look that idiom up again!

    2. Re: Zealot Express by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      "It's dry! It's rocky! It's red! It's deserted! We love it!"

  8. Rules of Planet Colonization by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 1

    1) Bring an electrician.
    2) Bring a plumber
    3) Bring a doctor
    4) Bring some guys in red tops, they're the sacrificial ones.

    --
    I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
    1. Re:Rules of Planet Colonization by Ogive17 · · Score: 1

      Would be easier to just bring one redneck.

      --
      "Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; philosophy without action is worthless."
    2. Re:Rules of Planet Colonization by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

      No, no. It's a lethario, a logician, and a doctor plus some red shirts, you fool!

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    3. Re:Rules of Planet Colonization by GuB-42 · · Score: 1

      What?
      The presence of a logician makes it sound like a riddle, knights and knaves style. That's unless they walk into a bar, that would be joke.

    4. Re:Rules of Planet Colonization by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

      Whooooosh

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
  9. They "lost contact" with the "Mars rover" because they were too cheap to build a new set on which to shoot the new fake "Moon base."

  10. Waste of time by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

    Nothing about that project was even remotely like what it would be on Mars. But I am sure a bunch of people got free Hawaiian vacations out of it.