CNN
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NASA is recruiting volunteers to become subjects for its upcoming one-Earth-year human space exploration study on Mars. Is this what you want to do?
It’s a paid position, but how much is a year of your life worth? That should be your first question. And there are a lot of details that need to be ironed out before you disappear for a year.
I know a thing or two about being sent on a NASA ship for months at a time. In her longest mission on the International Space Station (ISS), she stayed for 193 days from October 2004 to April 2005. This does not include her two months and her two weeks spent in Russia completing pre-launch training. After returning to Earth, I was finally able to return to the United States.
You don’t need to be ready as an astronaut in this upcoming Mars simulator mission. In fact, the requirements are quite broad, from age 30 to 55, he must be a healthy, non-smoking U.S. citizen or permanent resident, and be fluent in English. They also need to meet certain He STEM requirements, have the required military experience, or have at least his 1,000 hours of pilot flight time.
There’s one thing you should consider before joining Simulating life on the Red Planet will show you what happens to your belongings when you return home as an Earthling. Who will take care of your luggage? Who will help pay your bills? NASA is not very helpful in solving these types of life problems.
During my months-long space mission, I was able to put everything into automatic payments through my credit card or credit union. I had a lawn service cut the grass at my house. I paid them an average amount each month and worked with them upon my return. It was all manageable.
The other thing is what you are allowed to bring and what you are not..
In space, personal items such as photographs were allowed. On the ISS, I wore my own watch and always had it with me on every mission. However, you cannot bring your own cell phone or even a camera. And when you’re on the ISS, NASA wants every photo you take.
Four subjects participating in a year-long Mars simulator experiment will be housed in a 1,700-square-foot 3D-printed habitat at NASA’s Johnson Space Center for this Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA) study. You will live and work within.
However, this is not the first time such an initiative has been undertaken. In fact, one study currently underway is scheduled to conclude in June, 378 days later. Participants simulated many aspects of a real Mars mission, including normal operations, failure and failure cases, and ex-habitat adventures for mock spacewalks.
One of the main objectives of these missions is to study individual and crew dynamics and see how they perform under stress. Although space may seem like a quiet and peaceful environment, running a hectic experimental schedule in a confined space can actually be stressful. A key part of this training is understanding how the crew will react to the challenges of a deep space mission.
What if I can’t stand it halfway through the experience? This is another question you’ll want answered before signing up. If we really want to go to Mars or the space station, the answer would be simple. Once you get on board, there’s no going back.
One of the things that kept us aboard the ISS during our long mission was the frequent contact we had with our friends and family on the ground. When I was there, email syncing happened about three times in a 24-hour period, even before live internet access was available on board.
VoIP telephony (Voice over Internet Protocol) is a technology that enables voice calls over the broadband Internet instead of analog telephone lines on the ISS, allowing astronauts to make short phone calls to people on the ground. When the antenna is pointed at her one of the satellites.
For Mars simulations (or future Mars missions, for that matter), real-time communication is impractical due to distance-related communication delays on the order of 3 to 20 minutes.
Also, I don’t think you will be able to connect to the internet for the rest of the year, so don’t expect to surf the web. Ground crews can still send things to you and you can still send things back, but it’s not like using your laptop at home.
One more thing: While on the ISS, our favorite thing to do when we had free time was to look out the window and take pictures of our beautiful home planet. The Mars rover has a window, but you can barely see anything because the Earth will soon turn into a star and the sunlight you’ll always be inside will wash out the starlight and everything you can see around you. lose. It’s black.
In the simulator, there might not be any windows at all to make it more isolated. Are you the type of person who can stay in a windowless enclosure for long periods of time? At least you have a laptop with movies and photos on it. It helps, but obviously it’s not the same.
How did it cope with being in close confinement with a small number of other people for an extended period of time? Well, the ISS is bigger than the Mars simulator. But if you have some expectations about limited space and long periods of absence, you’ll probably be fine. When it comes to feeling homesick, you may not have the time. After all, most days will be very, very busy. And that’s a good thing. In fact, having too much free time can be a pain.
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How will this experience change you? Spaceflight, especially long-duration spaceflight, affects all astronauts and is generally a positive change. Many of us are recalibrating our perspective, taking a “bigger picture” view of life. However, some astronauts have “reentry” problems that must be resolved.
For example, some astronauts need time to get used to being in crowds again or being around small children. These are generally It’s a short-term issue, but we still have to think about it.
Finally, after a year on the Mars simulator, you’re very likely to miss some of the things I’ve missed the most. Apart from my family and friends, who I kept in good contact with mainly through email, I missed nature. I missed feeling the wind on my face and watching the birds fly and the squirrels run around.
As soon as I opened the hatch of the spacecraft after landing from the ISS mission, I could smell grass. It smells amazing and brings back so many memories. I knew I was back on Earth. I knew I was home.
If you still decide to apply and get selected, you may feel the same way after completing a long mission, even if you never leave the ground. If you are selected and decide to participate in this simulation, good luck!