4 ms·

I don't think testing small group dynamics with a crew who are not "the right stuff" tells lots of useful things of what happens when astronauts go to Mars. Es

I don't think testing small group dynamics with a crew who are not "the right stuff" tells lots of useful things of what happens when astronauts go to Mars. Especially when there is no real danger.

akvadrako 8y ago
It has been suggested before that people who are "the right stuff" might actually be poorly suited for a Martian mission. Becoming an astronaut or world-class scientist is highly demanding and takes a lot of energy. But a Martian trip will likely be incredible boring and stress interpersonal relationships. So what we really want is competent, relaxed people who can handle 6 months of downtime in tight quarters.
- walrus01 8y ago
  Sounds like they need people who buy $150 gaming mice and have 400 items in their Steam library, all single-player/offline games, or thigns that work on a LAN. The sort of person who spends 3 weeks building a masterwork in Cities Skylines.
  - irascible 8y ago
    Omg I'm a Mars settler!
- Nokinside 8y ago
  Are you familiar with the Navy saying: Every Sailor a Firefighter? Do you think that damage controlman rating trains mainly for boredom (because usually nothing happens) or do they drill for surviving in a emergency? Just like the life in the sea, aviation or in the ISS, Mars mission will be going trough checklists and routine inspections and preparation for emergencies. When something goes wrong it's the end of the downtime.
  - neurotech1 8y ago
    Not disagreeing with the "every sailor a firefighter", although the current generation ISS astronauts get considerable EMT training, along with other necessary emergency skills. Most astronauts have considerable knowledge of electrical system as well. Were the Hi-SEAS astronauts trained to the same level as a NASA ISS astronaut? Unlikely. Should a future Mars simulation have at least one highly experienced EMT, if not an actual emergency physician? Yes. Should a future Mars simulation have at least one person with considerable experience in electrical engineering, computer science or avionics systems? Yes.
- TangoTrotFox 8y ago
  The sort of person who becomes an exceptional scientist, or generally the sort of person who excels at any mental activity, is also generally the sort of person who does not get bored. Beyond that, their schedules will be jam packed. They're going to be spending hours per day exercising, hours in diagnostics and maintenance, hours in training, hours in general work (pathing, communications, logging, running experiments, etc) and then hopefully getting an hour or two to themselves at some point before doing it all over again the next day. And that's before they even get to Mars, which is when the real work begins. When you're tens of millions of miles away from Earth there are countless things that can go wrong, and a good chunk of them end up with everybody dying. By contrast there are very few paths to a completely successful mission, and maximizing the chances for that is going to entail an enormous amount of work and energy.
neurotech1 8y ago
During STS-27, when Capt. Robert Hoot Gibson (TOPGUN F-14 pilot, test pilot, and later chief astronaut) rightfully got pretty annoyed with mission control.[0] I'm not sure it could be justifiably argued that Capt. Gibson didn't have "The right stuff". [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-27#Tile_damage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-27#Tile_damage
- Nokinside 8y ago
  Gibson was infuriated for a right reasons and the Mission Control was wrong. That's a good mission commander. Puts his crew's safety first. They should have allowed using uneencrypted transmission to send tile image for inspection. STS-27 came really close to disintegrating while landing. > STS-27 Atlantis was the most damaged launch-entry vehicle to return to Earth successfully.

I don't think testing small group dynamics with a crew who are not "the right stuff" tells lots of useful things of what happens when astronauts go to Mars. Especially when there is no real danger.

akvadrako 8y ago

It has been suggested before that people who are "the right stuff" might actually be poorly suited for a Martian mission. Becoming an astronaut or world-class scientist is highly demanding and takes a lot of energy. But a Martian trip will likely be incredible boring and stress interpersonal relationships. So what we really want is competent, relaxed people who can handle 6 months of downtime in tight quarters.

walrus01 8y ago
Sounds like they need people who buy $150 gaming mice and have 400 items in their Steam library, all single-player/offline games, or thigns that work on a LAN. The sort of person who spends 3 weeks building a masterwork in Cities Skylines.
- irascible 8y ago
  Omg I'm a Mars settler!
Nokinside 8y ago
Are you familiar with the Navy saying: Every Sailor a Firefighter? Do you think that damage controlman rating trains mainly for boredom (because usually nothing happens) or do they drill for surviving in a emergency? Just like the life in the sea, aviation or in the ISS, Mars mission will be going trough checklists and routine inspections and preparation for emergencies. When something goes wrong it's the end of the downtime.
- neurotech1 8y ago
  Not disagreeing with the "every sailor a firefighter", although the current generation ISS astronauts get considerable EMT training, along with other necessary emergency skills. Most astronauts have considerable knowledge of electrical system as well. Were the Hi-SEAS astronauts trained to the same level as a NASA ISS astronaut? Unlikely. Should a future Mars simulation have at least one highly experienced EMT, if not an actual emergency physician? Yes. Should a future Mars simulation have at least one person with considerable experience in electrical engineering, computer science or avionics systems? Yes.
TangoTrotFox 8y ago
The sort of person who becomes an exceptional scientist, or generally the sort of person who excels at any mental activity, is also generally the sort of person who does not get bored. Beyond that, their schedules will be jam packed. They're going to be spending hours per day exercising, hours in diagnostics and maintenance, hours in training, hours in general work (pathing, communications, logging, running experiments, etc) and then hopefully getting an hour or two to themselves at some point before doing it all over again the next day. And that's before they even get to Mars, which is when the real work begins. When you're tens of millions of miles away from Earth there are countless things that can go wrong, and a good chunk of them end up with everybody dying. By contrast there are very few paths to a completely successful mission, and maximizing the chances for that is going to entail an enormous amount of work and energy.

neurotech1 8y ago

During STS-27, when Capt. Robert Hoot Gibson (TOPGUN F-14 pilot, test pilot, and later chief astronaut) rightfully got pretty annoyed with mission control.[0] I'm not sure it could be justifiably argued that Capt. Gibson didn't have "The right stuff". [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-27#Tile_damage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-27#Tile_damage

Nokinside 8y ago
Gibson was infuriated for a right reasons and the Mission Control was wrong. That's a good mission commander. Puts his crew's safety first. They should have allowed using uneencrypted transmission to send tile image for inspection. STS-27 came really close to disintegrating while landing. > STS-27 Atlantis was the most damaged launch-entry vehicle to return to Earth successfully.