Mars500 Crewman Offers First Video Tour Inside the Locked Facility, Where Showers Are Tightly Rationed

I am not sure if this test will show accurate results. One of the huge psychological factors is that, when in space, there is no way out. Here, with the airlock system used to transfer test samples to scientists outside, the sense of being "trapped in space" is taken out of the equation. In the backs of the minds of the test subjects, they will know that if they ABSOLUTELY have to, they could leave (through the airlock if not through the actual entrance) at any time. This effectively negates the panic reaction that the astronauts may face months into the live mission in space.

Just my two cents.

I can agree with that Cerwin, but you also have to think about this. If this were the actual mission, I would like to think that even though they know there is no way out, the excitement of going to another planet millions of miles away will keep their spirits very high.

Couldn't they save a lot of money by studying those World of Warcraft nuts. It is effectively the same thing. First successful Mars mission must include: 7 WOW nuts, 7 computers on a LAN, and a lot of Mountain Dew and Totino's Pizzas.

cerwin13, I agree. Not only that, the mission can't simulate the bone loss these astronauts will experience. And if something critical breaks, they had better have a spare along or they're done for...

Showing only three times a month, they'll all end up with skin infections or rashes... people have evolved to bathe frequently, if not in pools, then by rainfall.

We'll probably not hear about it though...

It doesn't seem like they tried to make it look like a spaceship, with the rug and a balance board...

"showing' in my last post = showering. damned typo gremlins

Where's my comment?

I am going to repeat my comment. OMG. It was not posted. I said that the convicts in French Guiana survived five years or six years in solitary confinement in the black holes. Henry "Papillon" Charriere survived two years in it, feeding only on chunk of bread, coffee, soup and coconut meat. There were no video games, email, gym equipment, twitter, light. Not even sound, only the clanking of heavy chains and the shrieking of men pushed to the very limit of their sanity. They didn't take bath either all throughout their confinement. So in comparison to black holes, being in that contraption is like a picnic. Poor old Henry would have been rejoicing if were in the shoes of these men.

@podboq No they won't. Human skin is perfectly capable of adequately cleaning itself with some assistance without having a wet wash, that is how it has evolved. Indeed if one washes hair too much, such as once a day, it damages it. In history baths and showers where taken much less frequently than they are today.

If they have an airlock, that might suggest they are at a different pressure, which would mean that if something does go wrong they can't leave. So there is no way out. Anyone know?

I still think money would better be diverted into launching a 20Mw nuclear reactor into space to power the VASIMR plasma-ion engine that cuts time to 39 days one way. That is so much more livable and you don't have to worry about the... 'other' factor.

You really think the cost of just building a 20Mw nuclear reactor will be less then they spend on housing a few dudes in a shipping container with wood-wallpaper, a couple of pictures, and a wii?

Spending more than a year and half cooped up with a bunch of other men is my idea of hell.

Yeah, I too would rather have a high powered VASIMR spacecraft to get there in a little over a month. Screw 520 days! Oh ant Ticezyintelligent, your comment makes no sense.

Actually, plenty of situations have people showering a similar amount of times a month for extended periods (long submarine deployments, remote expeditions, etc). The results, while not altogether savory, are bearable and don't usually cause skin diseases. One simply learns to keep their distance!

if we only stoped funding wars all over the world we would have so much more money to save humans from dieing off and we would have the money to fly to the moon daily but of wait america needs cheap oil