Posted on 01/07/2013 8:25:03 PM PST by BenLurkin
The drudge of interplanetary travel has emerged from research on six men who joined the longest simulated space mission ever: a 17-month round trip to the red planet in a pretend spaceship housed at a Moscow industrial estate.
Though chosen for the job as the best of the best, the would-be spacefarers spent more and more time under their duvets and sitting around idle as the mission wore on. The crew's activity levels plummeted in the first three months, and continued to fall for the next year.
On the return leg, the men spent nearly 700 hours longer in bed than on the outward journey, and only perked up in the last 20 days before they clambered from their capsule in November 2011. Four crew members suffered from sleep or psychological issues.
The ESA selected the crew from thousands of highly qualified applicants, and put them through a year of intensive training. But despite embodying "the right stuff" that underpins the astronaut corps, the men struggled with the tedium of the mission.
"The monotony of going to Mars and coming back again is something that will need to be addressed in the future. You don't want your crew hanging around doing nothing," Basner said. [No kidding]
According to the study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, some crew members fared worse than others. One began living a 25-hour day, and quickly fell out of routine with the others.
Another crew member slept at night but took ever longer naps during the day. Taken together, the two men spent a fifth of their time, or 2,500 hours, asleep when the rest of the crew were awake, or vice-versa. "That cannot be good for mission success, because mission-critical tasks will be scheduled for the day," Basner said.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
Ah...Astrology...
Dude, who ate my cheese ?
They need some honeys on board. Let’s get real.
Sounds like they should have sent some Babes along... Who ate what?
‘Ground control to Major Tom....”
bump
Agree with posts re. Dudes alone for 17 months is recipe for tension. Check on navy studies regarding long under ice cruises on boomersubs add women stir and also send a dog a cat a bird and also a garden. But most importantly have them build some module for the mission not critical but important
Scatter oakum on the decks...
/johnny
Can you really store a 17 month supply of oxygen?
I thought this was the plot for a Twilight Zone episode.
Can you really store a 17 month supply of oxygen?
That sounds suspiciously like NCO kind of talk....
/johnny
They make O2 out of urine now on the ISS.
You don't want to know details about the logistics for long-term spacecraft. Russians designed most of it, and it mostly works.
But the less you think about it... the better.
/johnny
This has long been known. Ever since men have sailed long stretches aboard sailing ships, they are constantly given busywork to keep them occupied. The cleaning and maintenance is necessary, but it is also necessary for the mind.
If things turned out poorly when these men knew they were still on planet earth, I can imagine what the effect would be when they are in fact surrounded by an empty, airless, cold and heartless void.
Send the duck calls dudes, their wives and a few gators and that would be interesting.
Whiskey, Women, and Bowie Knives, should liven things up.
Did I say “Women”? I meant Woman.
The problem is they sent the “best of the best”. What they need to do is lock up a few couch potatoes with enough beer and chips to last them, and then see how it goes.
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