Living in five modules divided between areas for work and rest, the crew will first simulate a 250-day outbound flight to Mars, followed by a landing. Then, during a 30-day Mars surface stage, three of them will move to the Mars lander simulator, don space suits and walk around in a specially designed sandpit that is standing in for the Red Planet. Finally, there is the 240-day return trip to Earth.
So far that sounds good and like a true simulated trip.
Although they are supposed to be simulating a space mission in a mock-up spaceship, one has to say it doesn't look very spaceship-like in any of the five modules. All have pine walls, pine furniture and pine bookcases, making it look more like a Swedish sauna than an interplanetary craft.As for the bedrooms, think student accommodation. As a whole, it looks like a holiday cottage with no windows.OK, why could they not get some props that have been auctioned off lately or consult with some science fiction movie and television producers for some serious looking space craft? They could make it steel grey metal, make it small and cramped, put in some small windows with a film of the stars and change them appropriately as they travel closer to Mars.It's bound to be stressful. Although they know each other well and have been psychologically profiled not to have obvious clashes, this is no 10-day space-shuttle flight, during which a crew can put up with personal problems. If they are not careful, simmering resentment, jealousy, inappropriate competition and even mutiny could wreck the mission. Previous experience of such isolation suggests people get heartily sick of other people's stories after a few months, and soon afterwards run out of stimulating conversation. Then the tensions ramp up.That is a very valid study, in the movies or tv, the crew is always like a "family", except on Stargate Universe which is a more realistic look at how people interact with each other under extreme pressure.
All in all it sounds very interesting and those astronauts who make it to the end will get paid.
Here is a link to the article.
5 comments:
I recently read and reviewed a book called "The Wooden Spaceships" - perhaps these astronauts are training for something similar?
Great post, the question of how people would put up with each other on such a long voyage is really interesting. Do you know if any of the astronauts are planning to blog from the "spaceship?"
That book sounds very interesting, Sci-Fi Gene, I imagine such a ship would be constructed with wood on the inside and some sort of metal on the outside.
To answer your question the article says:
Communications with the outside world will be mostly via email, with a 20-minute delay simulating the radio-wave travel time to Mars. One of the crew, Diego Urbina, will be twittering.
So it looks like one only will tweet from "space."
aldrin2: @armstrong1 can I have the window seat this time?
aldrin2: @armstrong1 are we nearly there yet?
HA! Too funny!
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