This is a really tough environment. Locked in a windowless room with the same 5 guys, 24 hours a day, for a YEAR AND A HALF.
It only differs from solitary confinement in that you’re not totally solitary. As far as exercising: Limited space to do it in.
For one thing, develop faster engines to cut the travel time. Apparently this experiment assumed about an 8-month journey both ways. There’s an engine under development that could cut a 16 month trip down to a 3 month trip.
Secondly, ditch the astronaut’s ability to control ambient light. Simulate day and night with immutable computer-controlled lighting that closely mimics sunlight. Synchronize ship’s time with point of origin time.
Add 2 or 3 flat-screen displays in different ship areas. One might be a synchronized recording of a video camera overlooking Times Square. One might be a village street in England. One might be a farm scene. Mix it up a bit.
Make educational programs available: Hire astronauts who would like to pursue a degree or other classroom program while traveling, and play a classroom videotape at specified times. Have the astronauts submit do and coursework which would be transmitted to instructors and graded. In other words, they’re enrolled in real college while traveling. It’s Tuesday morning. I have to get up and go to my 8:30 Applied Marketing class.
Better yet, have at least some of the astronauts TEACH a class. Put them in front of a video camera with a book and transmit the result to a real class, of real students, on earth. Have interaction with the students. Have them grade the students’ papers.
Other jobs can be found for some of the others. Have them develop some real web sites. Do business consulting. Do tutoring or some kind of coaching, via video.
Some could write one or more books while making the journey. Fiction, nonfiction — whichever.
Upload video tapes of friends’ bicycle journeys, and have astronauts take a daily bike ride “with” their friends. This can include video of the trip and recorded commentary by the friend. Bike different locations: Today we’re doing the neighborhood circuit; next week we’re biking the scenic railroad route. Make it so that their earthbound friends can check up on the astronauts (and verify biking activity with the OTHER astronauts) in order to facilitate a bit of competition and accountability.
Set earth communications at a specific time each day. Internet is available in the evening. Except... maybe daily news and weather is available for a while in the a.m.
Storage is cheap these days. Store a lot of likely-to-be-accessed web sites.
Look at providing artificial gravity (perhaps using a tether of some sort) and possibly a “hamster wheel” where astronauts might go for walks and jogs. Make it wide enough for two astronauts to jog at the same time, and include a position bar and a video screen that takes them on different journeys.
Assign as many physical tasks as possible. Include some projects, with hand tools that can’t easily be used as weapons. Here’s some wood, instructions, and tools to shave and shape and sand the wood with. Hand-craft a small piece of furniture. Make it so that you can easily assemble it for demonstration, and then disassemble it for storage.
In short, make the journey as little like being locked up in near-solitary confinement a tin can, and as much like living on earth and working a real job with daily responsibilities, as you can.
Oh - and turn the TV and video off between, say, 11 at night and 6 am. Make only “night lights” and small desk-type lamps (and books) available during those hours.
But don’t make it totally rigid. Give each astronaut a certain allowance for deviating from the routine. In other words, you can stay up late maybe 2 or 3 nights a week. If you haven’t used up your allowance, go for it. But make it no more than, say, 4 nights maximum in any week even if the astronaut has “saved up” late nights.
If I may summarize your detailed and well presented suggestions:
1. The Internet
2. Japanese Porn
3. Alcohol and home-brewing supplies.
I look forward to future space missions and will enjoy the entertainment provided by 5 drunk Cosmonauts fighting over whose turn it is to watch "Hello Kitty Does Nagasaki!"
Make certain that there is a Facebook connection so they can play words with friends. That would kill 2700 hours without blinking an eye.