Cramped quarters, no privacy, and the stress of working together every day. Psychology, more than aerospace engineering, may be the key to sending human crews to Mars.
This is Mars on Earth, a station that was built to help us learn how to live on the red planet. A group of explorers and NASA scientists are spending the next two weeks inside this habitat, trying to figure out how people will live on Mars. The NASA crews that went to the moon were test pilots, well suited for the tough two-week trip. But going to Mars will take years, not weeks, and choosing a crew is going to be difficult. Mission commander Frank Schubert is also an architect and engineer for the Mars Desert Research Station. The Mars Society, a group that advocates sending human missions to Mars, built the place.
You almost put it as a single person. I suppose to say well I would take this guy and that guy and that guy. You take six people who function as one and you may adapt the crew.
The right psychological traits, sort of like the right stuff. But the right stuff that was known for pilots is now the wrong stuff for a long duration space crew members.
Ephinia Morphew is a space psychologist from Johnson Space Center in Houston. She works with the International Space Station, and will be looking for parallels between the desert habitat and the space station. It’s important to realize just how much of the crew’s time is spent indoors with whole days passing for each with no trip outside. They operate under full Mars simulation conditions. That means they can only leave the habitat wearing simulation space suits. Preparing to leave the habitat in suits can take hours.
Here in the desert, the crew will be looking for extreme life in the surface rocks, and so the crew’s name and a mission badge is born—The Extremophiles. Now it’s on the collecting samples from their environment. First they need to establish which tools work well with the gloves on and how many can be reasonably carried. After a couple of hours in the cumbersome suit and heavy gloves, it begins to feel as cluster of fowl because of being locked inside.
You know, I would guess the astronauts. At first couple of times, they’re gonna be all excited about it, and then, they are gonna start to say, hey, you know, how about if you go (to) get the samples today.
When you are on a spacecraft you can venture frustrations anywhere. All of the frustration is within this capsule, right along with us. There are very few ways to vent.
No, we don’t have to be restrict(ed) on that for, our, the purposes of our deal…
Personal space is hard to find in such a small ship, but when crew psychologist Ephinia needs to interview members, it has to be private, and so the main air log sometimes doubles as her office.
If you don’t pay attention to the psychological aspect, you’re not going to get a crew there. |