It seems volunteers are flocking to play a part in a mission to mars. Only a game though as we are not ready to send anyone yet. Read here.
My question is that even though you are locked in a tin can for months on end you are not really that far from civilisation, medical care or a ciggy. Panic enough to threaten the mission and you will find the can will open and you can escape. So I would imagine it has limited use for the stress of space travel unless of course it is repeated enough, or goes on enough, so you gain a tolerance for it. A bit like repeated training excercises. So on the phycological side it must be limited although I have no doubt there will be a wealth of data there and coupled with what we know already from prisons and victims of entombment we should learn something and test those out to help on the trip.
Of course this will be an ideal test for a completely self contained environment and I’m sure that developments in this area will spill out into the real world and give benefits to society in general. Especially in personal hygiene.
This test is three months but the next planned test is for 520 days, nearly two years, and bear in mind that is still only one way in reality. It’s going to be a challenge for those guys. Personally I think I could make the three months in the game knowing it was only three months but no way could I do 520 days even in the game.
And just to make it more interesting I remember reading a sci fi short story. Can’t remember where or who but it was on this very subject. The Phycologists decided that the mental strees of going to Mars was too much so they put a team in a can for a test. A simulation. Only thing was it was a real trip and they only discovered it when they got there and discovered insect type life. A Mars bug and they accidentally squished it. They thought it was a simulated robot until they looked. Then they went insane and had to be drugged.
We clearly won’t be ready for the next bunch to be tested but I wonder about the last ‘test’ lot once we have a base in place built by robots.
Of course once the first real lot have gone the fear factor is much reduced. After all it’s just ‘another trip’ then. It’s back to the wild frontier then. Not exploration.
Playing a game
It seems volunteers are flocking to play a part in a mission to mars. Only a game though as we are not ready to send anyone yet. Read here.
My question is that even though you are locked in a tin can for months on end you are not really that far from civilisation, medical care or a ciggy. Panic enough to threaten the mission and you will find the can will open and you can escape. So I would imagine it has limited use for the stress of space travel unless of course it is repeated enough, or goes on enough, so you gain a tolerance for it. A bit like repeated training excercises. So on the phycological side it must be limited although I have no doubt there will be a wealth of data there and coupled with what we know already from prisons and victims of entombment we should learn something and test those out to help on the trip.
Of course this will be an ideal test for a completely self contained environment and I’m sure that developments in this area will spill out into the real world and give benefits to society in general. Especially in personal hygiene.
This test is three months but the next planned test is for 520 days, nearly two years, and bear in mind that is still only one way in reality. It’s going to be a challenge for those guys. Personally I think I could make the three months in the game knowing it was only three months but no way could I do 520 days even in the game.
And just to make it more interesting I remember reading a sci fi short story. Can’t remember where or who but it was on this very subject. The Phycologists decided that the mental strees of going to Mars was too much so they put a team in a can for a test. A simulation. Only thing was it was a real trip and they only discovered it when they got there and discovered insect type life. A Mars bug and they accidentally squished it. They thought it was a simulated robot until they looked. Then they went insane and had to be drugged.
We clearly won’t be ready for the next bunch to be tested but I wonder about the last ‘test’ lot once we have a base in place built by robots.
Of course once the first real lot have gone the fear factor is much reduced. After all it’s just ‘another trip’ then. It’s back to the wild frontier then. Not exploration.