REAL LIFE NEWS: LIVING IN THE CRAMPED QUARTERS OF A MARS MISSION
by Hazed
Remember the Mars 500 project? This was a long-term experiment to see how a group of people would fair when kept in close quarters, isolated from the outside world. It was intended to mimic the effect of a space voyage to Mars.
The experiment ran between 2007 and 2011, with three different crews of volunteers. The final stage involved six people spending 520 days in cramped quarters on the “mission”.
The conditions were as close to realistic as possible. They were confined to a facility that was the same size and shape as a spacecraft, were isolated from the light-dark cycles and seasonal changes of Earth, and were given both routine work and simulated emergencies to deal with.
Now a study has been published which assesses the psychological well-being of the crew. It looks like it was a tough mission. Among the issues that came up:
- One crewmember showed symptoms of depression for most of the mission.
- There were frequent conflicts with mission control.
- The two crewmembers who had the highest stress ratings, and showed most physical exhaustion, accounted for the majority of conflicts.
Not all the crew members suffered, though: two of them didn’t show any behavioural disturbances, nor did they report psychological distress, throughout the mission.
The fact that there were problems does not mean the experiment was a failure; on the contrary, it pinpointed issues that will need to be addressed if a crewed mission is to be sent to Mars. The study’s authors made some recommendations, including the need to develop strategies to cope with the monotony and boredom during the period when their workloads were low and when communication delays with mission control increased.
What is significant is that the crew members that suffered problems started to do so relatively early in the mission. This means that much shorter simulations could be used to weed out those who don’t have the “right stuff”.
Source: http://io9.com/can-six-astronauts-can-live-together-for-17-months-and-1556873709
