NASA Wants You To Spend A Year Simulating Life On Mars, For Science

[ZiprHead]

Would you like to spend a year pretending to live on Mars in a 1,700-square-foot space shared with three other people?

If that's your idea of a dream job, you can thank your lucky stars, because NASA is hiring.

The agency is seeking applicants for what it calls a "one-year analog mission in a habitat to simulate life on a distant world." NASA plans to observe humans in a Mars-like situation on Earth so it can study the challenges that might crop up during a future mission to the red planet.

Grace Douglas, the lead scientist for NASA's Advanced Food Technology research effort at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, says the simulated mission will benefit future missions that actually go to space.

"Simulations on Earth will help us understand and counter the physical and mental challenges astronauts will face before they go," Douglas says.

NASA is looking for four crew members who will live and work for a year in a 3D-printed, 1,700-square-foot module called Mars Dune Alpha, based at NASA's Johnson Space Center. According to NASA, the crew might perform tasks such as simulated spacewalks, using virtual reality and robotic controls, exchanging communications and conducting other research.

https://www.npr.org/2021/08/09/1026104476/nasa-wants-you-to-spend-a-year-simulating-life-on-mars-for-science

 

[Elixir]

Dang - I knew this belonged somewhere…

 

[skepticalbip]

Would you like to spend a year pretending to live on Mars in a 1,700-square-foot space shared with three other people?

https://www.npr.org/2021/08/09/1026104476/nasa-wants-you-to-spend-a-year-simulating-life-on-mars-for-science

It has already been done but with eight people... Biosphere 2. Maybe NASA thinks the experiment would be more successful with only four people trying to live together in a Mars habitat simulation.
https://www.businessinsider.com/biosphere-two-pictures-tour-2018-4

 

[Tigers!]

Can I choose who goes in?

Whoops already mentioned.

 

[The Colourful Jester]

Wish I had the skills to go.

 

[Keith&Co.]

1700 square feet? That's a three bedroom ranch house?

Eh. I'd do it. If i weren't on 15 medications.

The crucial step is to ensure you get what you need for yourself. My mantra was An Hour and A Shower and Six In The Rack.

Regular sluicing in the rain locker, time to read a book, minimum sleepage.

After that, they could do anything to me, i was okay. Others used physical workouts rather than reading, or poker or video games, whatever.

Just know going in that you're going to hate at least one other crewman by, oh, maybe Thursday, all the other fuckers by the end of the second month. At the six month point, you're stalking through the common areas, "MUST you breathe in SUCH an annoying manner?"

By the eleventh month, you're probably going to be one 'your mom' joke away from being a wax museum exhibit next to Lizzie Borden's. That's when The Hour is crucial. I need to be alone, by which i mean, halfway convinced you fucks went out an airlock.