4 ms·

Anemia is just one of a myriad of problems humans would face on a Mars trip. My chief concern, and the one that's probably hardest to tease out, would be the ps

Anemia is just one of a myriad of problems humans would face on a Mars trip. My chief concern, and the one that's probably hardest to tease out, would be the psychological stress. There's no escape pod, no truncated emergency schedule, no one to greet you on the other end, and potentially not enough work to keep you busy. These conditions are hard if not impossible to replicate on earth.

skulk 5y ago
If stress is such a problem, then why not just sedate the passenger? Some forms of sedation can be quickly reversed as a last-ditch effort if there's a problem that the computer/mission control absolutely cannot solve.
- 420official 5y ago
  Astronauts on the space station work out nearly every day for several hours to stave off atrophy and still have issues. Leaving someone sedated for months in a zero G environment would make the atrophy far worse.
_tom_ 5y ago
> These conditions are hard if not impossible to replicate on earth Really? Where have you been for the last two years? On the other hand, it does fully supports your hypothesis that the psychological stress will be huge.
- lapetitejort 5y ago
  The majority of people who had prepared for the 2020 snap study elected to drop out after only a few weeks. Science, and humanity as a whole, are worse off as a result.
- RavingGoat 5y ago
  It seems like death row inmates would be a good comparison group.
- kortex 5y ago
  Even at the height of Covid, I was still bundling up in PPE and going to the grocery store. Not to mention all the outside things to do. Even the biosphere-style experiments, there's always the subconscious knowledge that you can make a call and bail at any time. That's very different than knowing you have no lifeline. Les Stroud from Survivorman talks about how on one of his stints, he tested the emergency walkie/satellite phone or whatever and got nothing. So he's got some idea. There are people out there who can do it, but it takes a special breed. So yeah, take Covid stress, and like turn it up to 11.
supperburg 5y ago
It’s not a problem at all. Some people are predisposed to turning psychological stress into a psychiatric pathology but there is nothing intrinsic about stress or space travel that causes psychiatric problems. People on death row meet your criteria and probably endure more stress and a lot of them don’t develop psychiatric disease.

skulk 5y ago

If stress is such a problem, then why not just sedate the passenger? Some forms of sedation can be quickly reversed as a last-ditch effort if there's a problem that the computer/mission control absolutely cannot solve.

420official 5y ago
Astronauts on the space station work out nearly every day for several hours to stave off atrophy and still have issues. Leaving someone sedated for months in a zero G environment would make the atrophy far worse.

_tom_ 5y ago

> These conditions are hard if not impossible to replicate on earth Really? Where have you been for the last two years? On the other hand, it does fully supports your hypothesis that the psychological stress will be huge.

lapetitejort 5y ago
The majority of people who had prepared for the 2020 snap study elected to drop out after only a few weeks. Science, and humanity as a whole, are worse off as a result.
RavingGoat 5y ago
It seems like death row inmates would be a good comparison group.
kortex 5y ago
Even at the height of Covid, I was still bundling up in PPE and going to the grocery store. Not to mention all the outside things to do. Even the biosphere-style experiments, there's always the subconscious knowledge that you can make a call and bail at any time. That's very different than knowing you have no lifeline. Les Stroud from Survivorman talks about how on one of his stints, he tested the emergency walkie/satellite phone or whatever and got nothing. So he's got some idea. There are people out there who can do it, but it takes a special breed. So yeah, take Covid stress, and like turn it up to 11.

supperburg 5y ago

It’s not a problem at all. Some people are predisposed to turning psychological stress into a psychiatric pathology but there is nothing intrinsic about stress or space travel that causes psychiatric problems. People on death row meet your criteria and probably endure more stress and a lot of them don’t develop psychiatric disease.