[BenLurkin]

"We saw some problems," said Mathias Basner, of the University of Pennsylvania, who studies the effects of sleep-loss on behaviour. "There were no major adverse events, but there could have been if the stars were aligned in a certain way."

Ah...Astrology...

[NCC-1701]

When Michael Foale was doing his stretch on Mir, he was doing a PAO event where he was asked what would be one of the biggest negatives one would have to deal with on an extended trip like Mars. He said that looking out the window and seeing the blackness of space would be one of them. Being used to seeing the blue hues of Earth is restfull, looking at nothing but blackness would be a huge mental block. Looking at an unchanging scene WOULD be a huge mental blockage. Once you’re a few weeks away from Earth and the same from Mars would be boring.

Unless a major advance in propulsion is developed, a trip to Mars has a LOT of drawbacks. If you could get there in a few months then no biggie. Any longer and the crew would start freaking out on each other. From what I’ve read, the crew would be on the trip for 600 days. That is a huge committment. Getting there and back quicker would be prefferable to the grind of a longer and more boring passage.