Dry Run for the Mars Mission.

[granfire]

http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/...o-ease-boredom-in-space?lite&ocid=msnhp&pos=2

The HI-SEAS mission is part of a three-year, $947,000 NASA grant that also covers a bed-rest study in Texas. For most of the time, the gastronauts are confined to a domed habitat placed at the 8,000-foot level on Hawaii's Mauna Loa volcano. If crew members go outside, they have to wear mock spacesuits. And as the mission continues, communications between the habitat and the outside world will be delayed 20 minutes each way to simulate the light-travel time between Mars and Earth.

Meanwhile, Engler is experimenting with robotic pets to see whether a needy, an assertive or a passive robo-personality is a better fit for space companionship. "It has been well-established that domestic pets can provide a great deal of stress relief and create emotional bonds with their owners. At this time it is not practical for domestic animals to accompany long-term space missions, so it is of interest to examine the potential of providing robotic companions," Vermeulen's email explained.

I think the 20 minute delay in outside communication would be the killer for me though...you can't play MMORPGs that way! (they could get their own server though....)

 

[elder999]

http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/...o-ease-boredom-in-space?lite&ocid=msnhp&pos=2

Boredom be damned; While the Mars probes have demonstrated that surface radiation on Mars, long thought to be deadly, is something that we could handle with the current level of technology, the radiation exposure from the trip to Mars still borders on untenable.(Interesting factoid: astronauts regularly see 'white flashes" in their heads from cosmic ray bursts!!!!) Unless and until further developments in materials science make lightweight shielding that can handle the trip possible, and/or we develop a quicker propulsion system to make the trip shorter, these "dry runs" are all there will be.....

 

[granfire]

I am a little more pragmatic about it: There is much we don't know about nutrition and - for that matter - human behavior.
Having to rely on a restricted food source without the option to hop down to the grocery when you run out could prove very valuable.

I mean, for a long time we thought the color of food was cosmetic, but even something benign as the pigmentation o food is important.

Maybe it knocks some nutrition myths out.

i don't really see anybody going to Mars in the near future. And I am speaking in a big picture kind of sense....I don't think I will get to see the launch, and my kid probably won't see it either.

 

[Big Don]

Water on Mars

 

[arnisador]

I'm ready to go!

 

[granfire]

I just never realized that 'Mars' was an energy bar....looked like chocolate to me....

 

[Big Don]

I just never realized that 'Mars' was an energy bar....looked like chocolate to me....

I think that is foreign packaging?

 

[Sukerkin]

A Mars a Day Helps You Work, Rest and Play!

This and other lies brought to you by unregulated advertising :lol:.