Volunteer to Simulate a Mars Mission for the ESA

number6x writes "The European Space Agency (ESA) is looking for volunteers for a simulated trip to Mars. The simulation will put a crew of six in isolation for 17 months. The crew will be made up of 4 Russians and 2 Europeans. In all the ESA will need 12 volunteers for back up purposes. Seventeen months was chosen to simulate the time needed for the journey to Mars and back, as well as a 30 day period spent doing experiments on the red planet."

Simulating the wrong mission

[Anthonares]

Virtually all modern plans for Mars missions follow the same basic timeline: 6 months travel to Mars, 2 years on the planet, and 8 months back. The idea of a 30-day stay on the planet was abandoned long ago by NASA.

This simulation takes away the huge reward of the long travel time, and replaces it with a brief 30 day stint of freedom.

They'll surely get interesting results, they just won't be worth anything when it comes time to actually plan a real manned Mars mission.

Re:What they fail to mention in the summary

[Opportunist]

Sounds like a fair lot 'til you realize that this is for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and that your hourly wage is about 5 bucks. Whether you're awake or sleeping, granted, but then again, I do value my privacy somewhat.

But hey, here's an idea. How about stuffing all those "if you got nothing to hide..." people in there? I'm pretty sure it might make them reevaluate that stance.

Re:Too bad..

[Lord Bitman]

wouldn't it suck if we worked all that out but still had to wait another 17 months while we figured out the psychological effects?

Re:social, not ecological isolation

[Ihlosi]

Most participants lost 1/4 to 1/3 of weight.

They should have made it a diet center instead of using the space for condos, then.

That aside, IMHA Biosphere II used the wrong approach - too many things at once (several different ecosystems, lots of species, etc). A better approach could be to find the minimum number of species that is necessary (which means that there'll be a lot of algae and fungi, and not all that many vertebrates and insects), and determine what type of inputs and outputs are necessary (even on the most barren planet, there'll be some local resources to use).

Re:30 days?!

[Loke the Dog]

The alternative is 2 years, as I understand it. The problem is that Mars and Earth are only close to each other every second year or so. You have to go there as they are moving closer, and leave before they part too far again, or you have to stay there for another cycle.

Now, 30 days is a bit short, but 2 years is too long. 17 months, with 30 days on the planet, vs 40 months with 24 months on the planet.

Re:Will they be allowed to have sex?

[cmeans]

They might not object to sex, but they might object to babies... 17 months is plenty of time to increase the crew complement.

Re:Simulating the wrong mission

[Cthefuture]

Yeah but I could deal with the confinement at lot better knowing the reward is being on Mars eventually. That and knowing I'm hurling through space at a brazillion miles an hour very far from Earth.

Doing this experiment would drive me insane because there is no payoff for the suffering other than research data.