Jun 20, 2010

Posted by in Mars, current

Mission to Mars: Are isolation fears overblown?

Mars 500 crew

The Mars 500 crew probably won't freak out. (photo credit: ESA/IBMP - Oleg Voloshin)

Right now, there’s a mock mission to Mars, with several mock astronauts spending more than 500 days in simulated Mars mission conditions.

They will be limited in their consumables. They will have long delays in communications with the outside world. And — horrors — they won’t have any company except each other. This is supposedly a terrifying problem that requires research before we consider any long manned missions to Mars.

I think it’s nonsense. There are big problems getting people to Mars; most relate to dangerous radiation and a lack of funding (or commitment.)

But, according to the European Space Agency (a partner in the experiment):

When preparing for long space missions beyond the six-month range currently undertaken by Expedition crews on the International Space Station (ISS), medical and psychological aspects become an issue of major importance.

Well, in the past, people have worked isolated in nuclear submarines, at isolated bases near the South Pole, and on missions in space running much longer than six months. What are they thinking? That Dr. Smith will go crazy and try to kill the crew every week, like Lost In Space?

  • Volker

    I don’t think isolation will be the biggest problem. Humans have spent and survived much longer times in solitary confinement. Involuntarily though, but nevertheless. I think the biggest psychological problem is one we can’t simulate. After the Apollo 8 flight, Jim Lovell talked about the shock the crew felt, when the entire Earth all of a sudden fit into the space ship’s window. Nobody can tell what it will do to human psyche, when Earth is reduced to a “Morning Star”, not brighter than Venus in our morning sky.

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