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The thing I'm most worried about is what happens if one of the residents needs medical attention. Mars is going to be a one-way trip and while the pioneers will

The thing I'm most worried about is what happens if one of the residents needs medical attention. Mars is going to be a one-way trip and while the pioneers will most probably be young and healthy, they won't stay young and healthy forever. It is entirely possible to place a doctor within the group and send medical supplies, but it could work only for the simplest medical conditions. I think it would be a long time before it would be possible to perform open heart surgeries on Mars, or even fill a tooth.

eCa 14y ago
I think you are right. Medical procedures would likely go back to basics: Bad tooth? Pull it out. Broken leg? Maybe amputate. However, with the right provisions fairly advanced procedures should be possible to carry out with minimum personnel. For instance, in 1961 a Russian doctor in Antarctica removed his own infected appendix [1]. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-surgery http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-surgery
- danielweber 14y ago
  Amputate a broken leg? Just how bad do you foresee that injury? It's not like we can't ship anesthetics up there. It's not like a layman can't set a broken bone, although I dunno if an X-ray machine would be there to see.
lsc 14y ago
Huh. I'd assume that you'd get top-of-field type people in medicine, science and engineering along for the trip. I'd also assume that you'd get older people, too... brains and experience (and, as they say, getting along with a group) is going to matter more than physical fitness, I would assume. And from what I've seen, most people with technical skills learn social skills much later, if at all. My worry would not be that I'd get stuck with a bunch of peasants, but that the standards would be so high, with regards to education and useful skills, that I would not qualify for the trip. If I was trying to pitch myself at the interview, I'd point out all my experience maintaining older equipment with limited resources. (I'm sure they'd point out that nearly all my repair experience is board-level, not component-level, which is the right thing when you have a lot of cheap spares, such as when dealing with older equipment on earth, but completely the wrong thing when you are in an environment where you have to bring or manufacture everything you use.) I'd also point out my years of 24x7 pager experience, (and my experience in knowing where my burn out point is- I will push back rather than work myself to burn-out) Of course, they'd point out that there exist outliers who can work harder and longer than I can without burn-out, and I'm sure a few of them also know how to spot burn-out coming up. So, yeah; I would assume that if they were taking a credible run at it, they'd get some really good people (including some good medical personnel.)

eCa 14y ago

I think you are right. Medical procedures would likely go back to basics: Bad tooth? Pull it out. Broken leg? Maybe amputate. However, with the right provisions fairly advanced procedures should be possible to carry out with minimum personnel. For instance, in 1961 a Russian doctor in Antarctica removed his own infected appendix [1]. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-surgery http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-surgery

danielweber 14y ago
Amputate a broken leg? Just how bad do you foresee that injury? It's not like we can't ship anesthetics up there. It's not like a layman can't set a broken bone, although I dunno if an X-ray machine would be there to see.

lsc 14y ago

Huh. I'd assume that you'd get top-of-field type people in medicine, science and engineering along for the trip. I'd also assume that you'd get older people, too... brains and experience (and, as they say, getting along with a group) is going to matter more than physical fitness, I would assume. And from what I've seen, most people with technical skills learn social skills much later, if at all. My worry would not be that I'd get stuck with a bunch of peasants, but that the standards would be so high, with regards to education and useful skills, that I would not qualify for the trip. If I was trying to pitch myself at the interview, I'd point out all my experience maintaining older equipment with limited resources. (I'm sure they'd point out that nearly all my repair experience is board-level, not component-level, which is the right thing when you have a lot of cheap spares, such as when dealing with older equipment on earth, but completely the wrong thing when you are in an environment where you have to bring or manufacture everything you use.) I'd also point out my years of 24x7 pager experience, (and my experience in knowing where my burn out point is- I will push back rather than work myself to burn-out) Of course, they'd point out that there exist outliers who can work harder and longer than I can without burn-out, and I'm sure a few of them also know how to spot burn-out coming up. So, yeah; I would assume that if they were taking a credible run at it, they'd get some really good people (including some good medical personnel.)