Monotony Dominates During 105-Day Simulated Mars Mission

Human beings are mental, physical and spiritual beings. You can't expect human beings to exist in a tin can for months without properly addressing these three major aspects AND providing proper companionship of the opposite sex and expect them to come out of the tin can months later perfectly adjusted. It's not going to happen.

" They tried to pass the time by playing cards and dice, and by attempting to learn Russian"

Gee...if i were stuck in a room (let alone a spacecraft) with nothing to do but could plan for it, I don't think that cards and dice would be my first option to keep the cabin fever away.

On real missions, crews should (and most likely will) have virtual reality as entertainment. In the 20+ years we will wait to see humans traveling to mars we might have something that looks more like the holodeck from star trek. So instead of being stuck with the ol dice and cards, our astronauts could have a library of entertainment to suit their needs while on the long haul section of flight.

We already know what we need to get to mars. Its just a matter of funding and political will. Every article seems to place insurmountable challenges ahead.

Gravity issues solved with rotating habitation module. Maybe a modified Trans-Hab?

Cosmic Radiation solved recently with experiments that prove that you can deflect the rays around the spacecraft with an artificial magnetic field. This will be a mainstay for all manned flights in the future.

Power consumption solved by use of nuclear power. Again, this only faces a political road block.

Crews mental health solved by use of virtual reality/augmented reality. If the crew were gamers to any extent, video games or like devices can go a long way.

That's funny... I spent 520 consecutive days in my room playing video games and I never felt any side effects. Future space crews will have to be gamers. We have gone years in isolation, and we weren't even forced.

Think about it

It’s an interesting idea to simulate a long term space mission by playing card games for months on end in a confined space and them worry about being bored. Maybe they should ask the US Navy how the handle long term missions in confined spaces with little or no outside contact, US Navy submarine crews have been doing it for decades.

Why are they wasting money on this when the Navy does it all the time on submarines? They have more room than I did on a submarine, and they probably have full contact with the outside world; more that a 50 word "family gram". Try a rotating 18 hour day with port and starboard duty - the days are long but the weeks are short.

I think a female robotic lover is perfect for men in space. When japan work out the kinks space travel will flourish. When future peoples look back they will mark the realistic female robot lover as the point when space travel takes off.

The obvious answer to the problem is: Give the astronauts something to do!

VR and videogames might solve part of it, but I think that a 520-day trip to Mars will call for a bit more variety. After you've beaten every game, read every book in the ship's library, watched every movie and explored every virtual environment, sedentary life will get dull real quick.

Running drills will help - it's hard to get bored when there are alarms going off and you have to maneuver to avoid collision with a micrometeorite shower. An occasional engineering challenge or science experiment might also help break up the monotony with some real-world activity.

And while some people might think nasty thoughts about me for saying this, the fact that everyone taking part in this exercise was male probably didn't help. I'm thinking that happily married couples might make better candidates - no worries about pent-up testosterone, and at least a decreased likelihood of sexual frustration.

i agree with true perspective, give me a good mmo and a hot chick, you can send me to pluto if you like.

If you got gamers you wouldn't need "hot chicks" just a good supply of video games, junk food, highly caffinated soda and a place to grab the occasional nap and NASA is all set. Ah what the heck have NASA through in a bit of porn and then they really don't have to worry much. The idea of running drills isn't a bad one either even us gamer geeks need solve problems.

boka might be on the right track. Assuming the flights wont be married couples a love robot (dirty as it sound) might be nesserry.

im a gamer and i read books often. i can only read a book so often espicailly if its good it wnt take up much time. but a good libray and games that take up time such as Real time stratgy and Roleplaying games would take up lots of time.

so take a love machine and few dozen good books an games wuld be hugly benificial

(bad spelling =/ )

I think the space ship to MARS should be an Earth Craft fit with small space ships that can land and take off from Mars to the Earth Craft that would orbit Mars. Then you add a Mule Craft for resupply of Earth Craft and equipped with a Mars base to land and transmit all data to the Earth Craft, then to Earth. 1 team on Earth Craft and another for the Base on Mars. Stocked with the latest and greatest green tech and what ever eels that science wants to bring. The Earth Craft would have gravity, green house, places for work, sleep, eat, relaxation, a gym, and all the other things you need for space travel. Green Tech would be on both space crafts so every thing is recycled. Both Crafts can join together and share all systems. Both have 2 back-up systems and what ever eels that NASA wants to add. Escape pods are also equipped but only for servile back to earth or the Mars base.

The only way to go is suspended animation, or deep sleep. If scientists can develop a method to make a person sleep for a couple of weeks or more at a time, that's good enough to prevent boredom.

Oh, come on! Doesn't everyone know that boredom is practically CAUSED by faux wood paneling?

Give them a ship that looks cool, and they'll have a much better time. (And the video game and sex robot suggestions can't hurt, either.)

Clearly this is a job for private enterprise.

[ www.ThePhenomenalExperience.com ]

I think that on the real trip, the people will feel more motivated. These trialists knew, deep down, that they weren't really going places.

Anyway this kind of experiment is no longer relevant to the Mars mission. VASIMR thrusters will one day give us 39-day trips to Mars.

Or better still, they might be using some development of the EMDRIVE, disguised as VASIMR, cause joe public must never know that one can move forward by kicking back on spacetime itself.

When we're talking a lengthy mission, any mix in a small crew is bound to be full of potential conflicts. Have single guys and gals, and maybe jealousies arise. Have couples -- and one couple decide they gotta divorce, like right now. Have a mix of couples *and* singles, and just stand back for Star Wars. All male or all female? Need I say more?

However, there are people we can ask: astronauts and cosmonauts who've stayed aboard the ISS for lengthy periods. True, they get visits from space shuttle crews, so they have something to look forward to that a Mars-bound crew wouldn't. Still, that's the closest group we can ask. (And the shrinks, sociologists, etc. do ask, as I understand it.)

And by all means -- talk to submariners, particularly any who've been on long-range submerged missions on nuclear subs. Those folks have gone for months at a time, too.

Someone mentioned the decor, and that's true. Let the crew design it jointly. Maybe even provide for the possibility of a little variation; I'm thinking about something on the lines of venetian blinds one color or pattern on one side and a different one on the other.

And how about transmitting entertainment to them? I mean, we already have video capabilities, so when the next set of new movies come out -- if they want to watch them, send them to them.

And let them have *frequent* live video contact with loved ones, including some private moments.

Heck -- if an astronaut wants to tweet or use some other social media (Facebook, My Space, etc.) -- why not? (within reason, of course.)

Let the media interview them live (if the astronauts are willing).

Maybe set a little time on any instruments the astronauts might want to use for some project of their own, not part of the official mission. Yes, yes, the mission comes first, but surely they could have, say, a few minutes now and then to type out a running diary on a computer, or look through the telescope (if there is one), stuff like that.

I'm just brainstorming here, so maybe some of these ideas aren't practical, maybe not even feasible. And I may overlooking something obvious.

Just had another idea: space permitting, if each astronaut could have his or her own private space -- I'm thinking sleeping cubicles -- that he or she could decorate to individual taste, might that help?

Or, maybe by the time a Mars mission is actually launched, we'll have to technology to rotate crews -- "Beam me home, Scottie!" ;-)

3 men 3 women and alot of liqour and extasy. I'm sure I'd figure out how to stay entertained. Even if they aren't attractive on take-off I'm sure they'll be hotties by landing.

More work needs to be conducted for such simulations as well as the real experience to be more entertaining for the mind. Yes no one can stand too much monotony so they should create special activities and use a non routine schedule, in other words never repeat exactly the same thing from one day to the next.
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Henriette de Vries
www.backgammon-global.com