NASA Is Already Studying What Sort of Person Is Best Suited For Mars (blastingnews.com) 144
MarkWhittington writes: The first crew to set forth to Mars are likely in Middle School or High School, but NASA is already delving into what criteria it should use to select the interplanetary explorers. That they should be physically fit and experts in their fields are a given. But the space agency is keen that the people who will set forth to Mars in 20 years or so should be of a particular psychological type. NASA has granted Johns Hopkins money to conduct a study into the problem.
Gonna go out on a limb here (Score:5, Funny)
You know like 90%+ of the astronauts they've ever picked. Optional: Actually having been in space, spent time on the ISS, or experienced crushing loneliness for months/years at a time
If loneliness were a pre-req, us slashdotters would cut to the front of the line!
Re:Gonna go out on a limb here (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Gonna go out on a limb here (Score:4, Interesting)
The people who go to Mars are going to have to face a completely new condition, that of being totally alone in an environment so hostile it will kill you in seconds. I don't think we yet know how to test for a personality type that can handle that, we can make educated guesses but until someone actually goes to Mars we won't know for sure if the people we send have "the Right Stuff"
Re:Gonna go out on a limb here (Score:5, Interesting)
You have to get out of the submarine first before you get all that fresh air. You can't just open the door a few hundred feet below the surface.
And even if you get to the surface without suffering from the bends or drowning, you're now facing water temperatures of what -- 70F if you're lucky, and if you're not, much less than that. The same hypothermia that will kill you in space will kill you nearly as fast in the water.
Re: (Score:2)
The difference is clearly the position you're in after you are crafty & resourceful enough to survive the life-threatening event.
You are either waiting for the Coast Guard or wondering if it's really possible to grow vegetables on another planet.
Re: (Score:3)
This may be why we need humans to go back to the moon first with plans for a long-term habitat. It largely has the same dangers, but there might be at least a chance of implementing an emergency rescue mission if something goes wrong. (It would still be harder than a rescue mission from the ISS but not nearly as difficult as from Mars.)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
More logically a Moon Base, say a primarily a galactic and solar system observatory would also provide the best training environment and be part of the selection process for missions further afield. So serve a year or two on the moon before you can get selected for missions further afield to say Mars, the asteroid fields, various moons around the place and the first to reach a planet around another star (possibly by that stage we would have quite the burgeoning metropolis on the moon, the ultimate global h
Re: (Score:1)
After "a year or two on the moon" a persons bones would be so weak that they couldn't come back to earth, much less deal with the force of a launch.
Low gravity makes for lower bone mass.
Re: (Score:3)
There will be bone loss, discomfort, and unpleasant adaptation. There will be deaths. People will sacrifice so we learn, but some will do better than others and pass those genes onto children who can do even better than that.
If we do not begin to spread human life off planet, this eggs in one basket policy is going to backfire.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I don't think it will be that hard, people climb mountains with an extremely high rate of death:
the Annapurna peaks are among the world's most dangerous mountains to climb, although in more recent history, using figures from only 1990 and after, Kangchenjunga has a higher fatality rate. By March 2012, there had been 191 summit ascents of Annapurna I, and 61 climbing fatalities on the mountain.
That is a 31% chance of death. These people must have been extremely fit (or just stupid I suppose). Being the first person on Mars would make you extremely famous, how many people know anyone has climbed Annapurna. 4,227 people applied for mars one, that was some company that has no track record of sending anyone into space. If NASA asked for applicants I am sure it would be orders of magnitude more.
There are 7
Re: (Score:2)
That is a 31% chance of death. These people must have been extremely fit (or just stupid I suppose).
That's a misinterpretation of the numbers. For every ~190 who summit, ~60 die would be a ~24% (60/250) chance of death if everybody who attempted to summit either summitted or died trying (and you count people who die on the way down as died and not summitted). Many more people attempt to climb the various 10,000 m peaks and turn around without either summitting or dying. You need to compare the number who die to the total number who try, not the numbers who succeed. You'll still probably see something i
Re: (Score:2)
Many more people attempt to climb the various 10,000 m peaks
Doubt anyone is climbing those peaks - they don't exist. Everest is 8,848m. Doubtful anyone would get to 10k even if a peak did exist given how risky it is being above 8k and that wouldn't even be the last camp for a 10k peak.
Many people attempt to climb the 7,000/+m peaks though.
Re: Gonna go out on a limb here (Score:3)
>NASA has a dirty little secret that they don't want to talk about -- landing people safely on Mars is hard and they still don't know how to do it
I remember President Bush talking in '89 about how NASA woud be landing astronauts on Mars c. 2011. NASA is inept, like all the other agencies.
Meanwhile, Musk is working on robots to turn Mars soil into concrete landing pads so the construction workers can start moving in on the VTOL rockets.
Construction workers who will probably be women operating robots. Hr
Re: (Score:2)
You think that the lack of succeeding at that goal is that Nasa is inept? You do understand that the only thing holding back our space exploration is how extraordinarily tiny and unreliable Nasa's budget is, don't you?
Re: (Score:2)
I'm betting that those that are good for the Navy's Submarine Service would also have a good chance. Being locked in one metal tube for months on-end versus being locked in another metal tube for months on-end, plus having an elevated amount of responsibility and the ever-present risk that an otherwise-small problem having drastic consequences.
The problem about having gone through military training is that it focuses so strongly on rigid discipline. Discipline is no doubt vitally important in any sort of army, but the downside is that it tends to be a sort of canned pattern of behaviour that you are supposed to follow unthinkingly, and what you need in an emergency, where external help is impossible, is probably a good deal of ability to improvise and not follow discipline, unless it makes good sense. Also, lonelyness is perhaps not so much an i
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Thinking before writing helps. You don't have to enjoy loneliness to have experienced it. "War is hell" but I'd rather go to war with a general who'd been in one than one who hadn't.
Re: (Score:2)
Such a person would be terrible trapped inside a spacecraft - and later, habitat - with a bunch of other people that they have no possibility to escape.
They wouldn't even be allowed to go out walking alone - that would be too dangerous.
Re: (Score:2)
I worked on some science missions out in the middle of the Greenland ice sheet, back in the day. The support crews there were largely made up of rural Alaskans. They were chosen in part because they (demonstrably) were able to handle being very isolated for long periods of time.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It's going to be hard. They're going to have to tie a lot of desire to survive and knowledge in with a general lack of need for other human contact.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
It's probably going to be an exceedingly intelligent, physically fit, mentally well-adjusted white man
I've been suggesting climbing Sherpas for a while, but people don't seem to realize I'm serious.
- They're preselected for requiring less oxygen than your average European, reducing the mass of the required life support systems
- They tend to be smaller than Americans of European descent, reducing the amount of supplies required
- Used to dealing with cold, hostile environments
- Probably plenty of smart ones available (assuming they're crazy enough to go to Mars).
If you start with people who think living at 18
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
> exceedingly intelligent, physically fit, mentally well-adjusted white man
The "white man" comes from passing all the training courses. However, they're also going to need to be _small_. Any extra hight adds up to many thousands if not millions of dollars in oxygen consumption, foodl consumption, and the fuel and resources to support them over the course of a many year mission. They'll also probably be male because it's much easier to put a simply condom based catheter on a man for the plumbing in a spac
Re: (Score:2)
They should also be good at math [youtube.com].
Isn't it obvious? (Score:5, Funny)
Somebody who loves potatoes!
Lord of the Rings -- IN SPAAAAACCCEEE!! (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Dayam I was gonna pose DJT but someone beat me to it.
Make sure to ask the important questions! (Score:4, Funny)
Question 2: Are you an expert in your field?
Question 3: Do you like potatoes?
---
That's one small potato for (a) man
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
> Question 1: Are you physically fit?
Whelp, that rules out 99% of /. :-/
. /me ducks :)
The profile (Score:1)
The first crew to set forth to Mars are likely in Middle School or High School, ...
Well, it's not gonna be me. I've been out of middle school for decades. But so they really think 11-13 years olds are going to be well suited for Mars? They're going for from cliques, they'll bully one another, they're gonna worry about dating....I don't think NASA really thought through the idea of sending Middle School students to Mars.
Re: (Score:2)
submitting treatment for "Lord of the Flies" on Mars.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:The profile (Score:4, Funny)
In all likelihood, you are responding to a joke. If you are experiencing some odd airflow over your head, that is the likely cause.
Re: (Score:2)
Underground miners used to the dangers of a close compartment that can't be escaped.
Physical Standards ? (Score:2)
someone light (Score:2)
Saving a few kilos on these missions is very important, I'd say someone under 50kg would be on the money. You might be able to go lower if they had no legs as legs are basically baggage on a space journey. Especially when NASA have been asked to do everything on the cheap.
well, if the "expert" designation is a requirement (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Green Skinned and Short (Score:3)
Large bulbous head, with antenna like growths optional but desired.
Re: (Score:2)
And an ability to live in a low pressure atmosphere.
Definitely a job for a southern redneck (Score:5, Funny)
Dont mine long hours alone.
They love things that go fast.
Could use a simulated Deer hunt for entertainment.
Can fix anything with duck tape and some wire.
Will eat just about anything.
There real good at growing stuff.
What more could you ask for?
Just need to outfit the ship to look like a pickup and the habitat to look like a Winnebago. Maybe Offer a million $ to the first one to shoot a deer on mars. :p
Re: (Score:1)
Someone with no kids (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
You think you're kidding. I must now recommend the television show "Rocket City Rednecks" a bunch of good ol' boys including several NASA engineers who explored numerous engineering challenges. The "use a Winnebago to test recycling and living enclosed for a Mars mission" episode was splendid fun. The need for much more beer than expected for the water recycling was priceless, as was the "don't put the water recycler too close to the driver's seat" lesson.
The show was wonderful, and like Mythbusters explore
Best Suited (Score:3)
It's pretty simple. really (Score:3)
The people that are best suited to go to mars are those who either explicitly have a death wish or else those who are simply too naive to realize that going there at the technology that we have right now is suicide. Heck, do you know how many people died just trying to sail halfway around the world to the Americas from Europe only a few centuries ago? And that was on a planet with a hospitable atmosphere!
The moon, at least, has more merit as a place to go to in that, at least theoretically, we can reach it from Earth in less time than it would take people who might get stranded there to starve to death.
Re: (Score:2)
I really thought by now that we would have a permanent beacon strobe on the moon.
Wouldn't that be neat? During a new moon you would just see this flashing light blinking out NASA (SPACEX if budget cuts keep up) in morse code.
Why? why not?
Think about it you could go outside with your kids and point and say see that blinking light? We put that there.
We really ought to have something on the moon. A permanent base would be nice. The moon is much closer and is roughly the same distance away year around. With the
Re:It's pretty simple. really (Score:5, Insightful)
The people that are best suited to go to mars are those who either explicitly have a death wish or else those who are simply too naive to realize that going there at the technology that we have right now is suicide. Heck, do you know how many people died just trying to sail halfway around the world to the Americas from Europe only a few centuries ago? And that was on a planet with a hospitable atmosphere!
We fairly reliably sent people to the moon with 1960s tech 6/7 times and saved Apollo 13, some 133/135 Shuttle missions were a success, we've operated a space station for 18 years, we got rovers on Mars operating over a decade... okay so space is not exactly like flying from London to New York yet, but we've certainly tamed it quite a bit. Sure, the mission is longer but most things that are critical happen during the launch/landing phase, we have a decade of on-site weather data and the Martian was a movie. And we're likely to have robots making a dry run testing the landing and establishing the habitat first, still considering the complexity I'd give it maybe 90-95% chance of success.
Certainly nothing to sneeze at but nine of out ten times you get an experience only one in a billion will have and the tenth time, well you'd likely be really dead really quick. To be honest, the risk of being in a parachuting or mountain climbing accident and ending up as a cripple is scarier than becoming a fireball, besides I'm not an adrenaline junkie. Going to Mars though, I'd sign up for that. Of course it helps that I don't have any commitments, I wouldn't do it if I had a wife and kids but there's plenty of us around. And shit, 70-75 years ago tens of millions were dying for war. Even if the mission is a wipe, that's like ten deaths for exploration and science? The horror.
Rockets (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
The first crew to set forth to Mars... (Score:2)
...likely hasn't even been born yet, because we're not going any time soon. NASA "plan" is a load of vapor.
That's an amazing coincidence! (Score:2)
That's an amazing coincidence!
I'm currently studying what kind of organization is qualified to study what sort of person is best suited for Mars, and I've already disqualified NASA, since they had no real plans to *actually* go there, until they were shamed into it by a private company.
Re: (Score:2)
The shortlist (Score:5, Funny)
Matt Damon
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Taylor Kitsch
Re: (Score:2)
Or you could use O.J. Simpson and fake it. [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
Matt Damon
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Taylor Kitsch
Send Trump and let him build a wall around it.
Already found him (Score:2)
Aiming high as usual (Score:2)
How about you make it so any reasonable average person could go? As in, stop f'ing around and make space *accessible*.
Oh man.... (Score:2)
Have I got some suggestions for them! Shit, do they want to stop at sorts of person? I can start making nominations right now. The sooner the departure the better.
the obvious solution (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
I should hope whomever we send has the good sense not to play 4e.
I know (Score:2)
They should go for an elderly person (nothing to lose), with an Msc in astrophysics, with great tech skills.
Botanist (Score:2)
"...who can cope with stress and boredum" (Score:4, Informative)
TFA doesn't need the overstatement (Score:2)
Hey, dummies, this will most definitely not be "the longest, most hazardous voyage in history". Three years is a long time, but explorers have often set out on voyages that take longer. Have you maybe heard of Charles Darwin and The Beagle? That voyage took almost five years, and it still isn't a record. And it's straight up laughable to say that it's the most hazardous voyage in history. NASA will never run it if the chance of death is over 10%. By historical standards, I'd call that a voyage of moderate h
No privacy (Score:2)
Martians are best suited for Mars! (Score:1)
Test Study (Score:1)
Trump (Score:2)
would do.
Not In A Million Lightyears (Score:1)
Already? (Score:2)
I think they started at least thirty years too late.
I have never been to... (Score:1)
As shown by numerous Antarctic winterovers (Score:2)
But you also have to be sane enough to spend over a year in a tin can with a bunch of people you may not like all that much, with nothing much to do, sure death waiting outside and no early exit. I speak from experience [gdargaud.net].
Who else? (Score:1)
Obviously (Score:1)
Men.
Re: (Score:1)
Women only and a sperm bank