image source, Pot
- author, Nikolai Voronin
- stock, BBC Global News
Half a century ago, flights to Mars were the stuff of science fiction.
Today, scientists are seriously thinking about what skills the future colonists of the Red Planet will need, how they will survive the long journey there and how they will be prepared to face hostile and uninhabitable conditions.
It takes a special kind of person to live in space. How will astronauts cope?
To answer these questions, on June 25 last year, four American pioneers Kelly Houston, Ross Brockwell, Nathan Jones and Anga Selariu embarked on a “spacewalk”.
Not to Mars, but to a 3D-printed replica of a Martian surface habitat. In simple terms: A system built to house astronauts and their equipment on Mars.
image source, Mark Felix/AFP/AFP via Getty Images
The system is a training site at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, where scientists have tried to replicate as closely as possible the conditions in which future colonists might live.
The four-man year-long “imprisonment” was the longest and most detailed spaceflight simulation experiment ever conducted.
For the past year, scientists have been monitoring participants remotely, periodically assigning them tasks, and collecting data on their physical and mental health.
“Flight” officially ended on Saturday, July 6. Researchers hope to find out how people live so long together, without conflict, without their loved ones and without their mental health deteriorating.
image source, Pot
A year in 3D modeling
image source, Reuters
Four participants in the experiment had seen the sky a year earlier.
For nearly 370 days, they lived in complete isolation as part of the CHAPEA (Group Health and Performance Study Analogue) project.
No shortage of candidates: More than 10,000 applications were submitted for four “Martian volunteer” vacancies announced by NASA.
The overall aim was to study the physiological and psychological effects of long space travel (the shortest trip to Mars was nine months) and almost complete social isolation on humans.
image source, Pot
The Mars module, which simulates the surface of the Red Planet, has an area of almost 160 square meters and was built with a 3D printer.
Scientists believe that 3D printing could be a viable way to build homes on Mars. Since the planet is millions of miles away, transporting construction materials there is impractical.
Colonists will have to make do with materials already on Mars: dust and sand.
It is hoped that these could form the basis of material for 3D printing space modules.
“Houston, we have a problem…”
Suzanne Bell, director of NASA's Behavioral Health and Performance Laboratory at the Johnson Space Center, says it's impossible to fully replicate the hostile conditions on Mars on Earth.
image source, Mark Felix/AFP/AFP via Getty Images
After all, Mars has an unbreathable atmosphere, microgravity, and strong radiation.
But CHAPEA is doing its best to prepare future colonists for the various challenges a crew will inevitably face during an actual mission to Mars.
Throughout the year, the participants ate exclusively foods that could survive a long space flight (i.e., canned food) and food that they grew themselves in a specially designed “Mars greenhouse.”
One of the main problems faced by real-life crews (which is reflected in this experiment) is a large communication delay due to the distance between Mars and Earth.
If humans on Mars wanted to communicate with mission control, it would take 22 minutes for any signal from Earth to reach the Martian surface.
image source, Pot
The return transfer takes the same amount of time, that is, it takes Almost 45 minutes to get an answer to a question.
This means that if difficulties arise, the crew cannot rely on Earth for help and must solve the problem independently.
Organizers designed the test to accommodate unexpected difficulties and unpleasant situations, from intermittent audio communications to sudden failures of small equipment.
According to Suzanne Bell, this is necessary to check how team members react to stress in a situation of complete isolation.
To participate, volunteers must have at least a master's degree in the natural sciences and must have experience piloting aircraft or have completed military training.
Kelly Haston, who became the commander of the mission, is a trained physician who specializes in developing stem cell therapies for diseases.
Brockwell is a design engineer, Jones is an Army medic who worked in the ambulance service, and Selariu is an experienced microbiologist in the U.S. Navy.
To ensure that the crew were suitable for the project, they had to undergo physical and psychological tests similar to those of professional astronauts.
What the critics are saying
Proponents of human missions to Mars hope that the data obtained from CHAPEA will help develop new technologies and methods for training astronauts, making long-duration spaceflight safer and more efficient.
However, many critics consider the approach Very confident. Human flights to Mars are considered too risky and expensive, and question whether they are necessary.
After all, most of the tasks entrusted to future colonists could be performed by robots at very low cost and without any risk to human life.
This risk is, to put it mildly, high. As Lev Zeleny, Scientific Director of the Space Research Institute and Vice-President of the Russian Academy of Sciences points out, the CHAPEA project does not answer the question of how to safely transport people to Mars.
Outside of Earth's magnetic field, strong radiation could endanger astronauts traveling to Mars.
Zeleny says that technological solutions to protect astronauts from harmful radiation have not yet been found and therefore there is skepticism about “Mars training”.
“Let them practice… brush their teeth and do exercises… whatever, it won't hurt them,” he says.
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