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Men emerge from Mars experiment
- miguelpais 17y agoI don't see a reason for these useless and throwing life away experiences if the purpose is just making the astronauts used to isolation. I kind of get it if it's to study something psychological, but we have so many prisoners in almost the same conditions... After the moon, everything is just too far away to travel. We can study Mars very well with the robot approach. We're just throwing astronauts life away for our stupid need of putting Men in Mars, which I dare say is utterly pointless.
- dandrews 17y agoAbout "throwing lives away" - it's a volunteer gig, and there will always be people who will take risks that you won't. Jim McLane points out that the easiest part of mounting a one-way flight to Mars would be finding people to send.
- coderdude 17y agoPointless? For all we know we will be the first species (anywhere in existence) to go to another planet. The prospect of stepping foot on an foreign planet blows my mind away. Before I get carried away, I'll just assume you're flamebaiting.
- marcusbooster 17y agoI'd guess the answer to the isolation problem is increased reliance on virtual worlds and online interaction. Though the lag might be dreadful when communicating with the Earthlings.
- tokenadult 17y agothe lag might be dreadful when communicating with the Earthlings That was an interesting aspect of the experiment. It's hard to phone a friend when each exchange of the conversation takes twenty minutes each way http://athena.cornell.edu/kids/bn_special_report.html http://athena.cornell.edu/kids/bn_special_report.html to travel to the other end of the conversation.
- TrevorJ 17y agoAsimov proposed that this problem be solved but both parties not waiting for a response before continuing to talk. I can't remember what the name of the short story this was a part of though, ring any bells with anyone?
- s3graham 17y agoI've worked with many people who talked this way.
- noonespecial 17y agoSome may revel in the return of the 'letter'. Lost art of correspondence and all that...
- bd 17y agoThat's basically the premise of Virtuality (new TV series by BSG creators): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtuality_(TV_series) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtuality_(TV_series) Pity the pilot wasn't picked up, it looked quite promising.
- goodgoblin 17y ago500 days? Thats almost 2 years of your life given over to essentially a useless experiment. What are they going to learn? People don't like cramped conditions, but they can deal with it. Give them movies and books to read and don't be a d*ck when you have to share some cramped space with people. Are they going to cancel the mission to mars if it turns out people would become extra-irritable?
- rbanffy 17y ago"Are they going to cancel the mission" Unlikely, but they may consider postponing until a bigger spaceship is available or trying other crew formulations.
- keltecp11 17y agoOr if they can put you into a 'sleep like' state...
- raquo 17y agoI don't think it's only about social and psychologic issues. Prolonged lack of gravity can cause real health problems. Certain aspects of it can be imitated on earth - for example by lying in bed at a certain angle so that more blood flows to your head..
- Luc 17y agoJust because you are not an expert and do not see the pitfalls does not mean that there aren't any.
- gaius 17y agoWell, quite. Best recruits for a Mars mission will be nuclear submariners. They're used to operating complex systems in cramped conditions in closed social groups.
- Retric 17y agoModern nuclear submarines are not cramped.
- Femur 17y agoI wonder why no women were involved in the experiment. Will we not be sending women on the first mission to mars? Also, I would imagine that regular sexual activity would make for a more placid social environment.
- clistctrl 17y agoHow does citizenship work for the results?
- moe 17y agoMartian?
- eugenejen 17y agoThis maybe the case that you are looking for homosexual/asexual astronauts for avoiding problems.
- gaius 17y agoblink you don't know many homosexuals, do you? Their relationships are just as complex and their breakups just as fraught as heterosexuals.
- whatusername 17y agoLast time I checked a homosexual couple weren't going to be having any baby martians while they were there.
- eugenejen 17y agowe just need stem cell tech to generate sperms and ova from males or females. But if you consider and want an system has stability population, maybe what you said is right.
- eugenejen 17y agoI don't know a lot. I know some of my friends before and I knew their breaking ups and making ups was as dramatic as heterosexuals. There were military suicide case in Taiwan when heart broken soldiers shoots all his platoon with his M-16. But at least in context of not giving birth to martians and current biotech progress, that is the way I can think of.
- arundelo 17y agoHats off to the volunteers. That's a lot to do and not even get to go to Mars.