Mars Mission Psychological Stresses

[ecarfan]

This article is about the psychological stresses likely to be experienced during the trip to Mars, and references the work done by NASA with the "HI-SEAS" program in Hawaii on Mauna Loa.Wanted: Mars Explorers. Must Be Able To Tolerate Boredom And Play Nice With Others.

When I was watching the SpaceX video animation of an ITS mission to Mars and it showed a "fly-through" of the interior of the crew area of the spaceship I was amazed at the large amount of empty space inside, and of course impressed by the huge viewport in the ship's nose ("bow"? "Pointy end"? What is the right term?). I suspect all that open space will help the crew tolerate the months in space that they will have to endure.

 

[ccutrer]

I doubt the end version will be so open, and I wouldn't want it to be. I bet all that was shown in that video were the structural members to show the different floors. If there ends up being a movie theater (likely), and a restaurant (I'm pessimistic that this will have the same meaning as it does on earth), then there will need to be walls to partition things off. And hopefully there are at least semi-private sleeping arrangements.

Even with some partitioning, It's still absolutely cavernous compared to any other current spaceship. So definitely better than what Apollo astronauts endured, but I'm thinking it'll be about--or slightly better than--taking a cross-country train ride with a sleeper car.

 

[Genshi]

Yeah, if you think about putting 100 people in that space, and look at the external dimensions of the vehicle itself - as well as how much space the fuel tanks take up.... it seems quite crowded to me. Even if 1/2 of them are sleeping at any given time.

Like ccutrer said - cavernous compared to other spaceships, but you're stuck it in a lot longer, and there's no gettin' off this train.

Edited to add: A++ for any link that goes to 538. Their commentary across the wide spectrum of topics they cover tends to be fantastic.