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NASA starts year-long isolation to prepare astronauts for Mars (bbc.com)
98 points by anigbrowl on Aug 29, 2015 | hide | past | favorite | 15 comments



Misleading headline. It's an isolation experiment, and the six person team are not astronauts. Only in the loosest sense is it preparing anyone to go to Mars, or simulating life on Mars. It's also not even the longest to date.[1]

[1] "Other simulation experiments have taken place under the ocean off the Florida coast, in Antarctica and in Russia, where a 520-day Mars experiment was carried out in 2011."


>where a 520-day Mars experiment was carried out in 2011

They sure crammed a lot of days into that year.


That's like 3/4 of a Martian year.


The wonder of freeze-drying time.


The inaccurate headline was carelessness on my part. Sorry about that.


Just watched a Twighlight Zone episode about this subject. It was actually the first of the series.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_Is_Everybody%3F


The throwback of the U.S. looking to get to the moon was pretty interesting.


or "The Outer Limits" Counterweight (1964)


You better just read the "The Martian" Andy Weir's book than sitting in a dome for a 6 month. And for what reason, Russians have already completed such kind of experiment in 2010-2011 and the length of experiment was more then 500 days https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MARS-500


This reminded me of the Biosphere 2 experiment, which I saw a fascinating talk on. I think it was basically the same as this TED talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/jane_poynter_life_in_biosphere_2

Eight scientists lived in a closed biosphere to simulate what a potential colonization scenario might be like (among other things). The first experiment lasted 2 years, and encountered environmental issues, but also some psychological upsets - the crew split into two factions who became bitter enemies, among other things.


Looking at the pictures, this doesn't look like a sealed environment (which biosphere 2 was). The dome is made of fabric and there doesn't seem to be an airlock.


More at the web site for "Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation":

http://hi-seas.org/



NASA, if you need a volunteer, I'm your guy! Please?


If it makes you feel better, if you're interested in helping get people to Mars and elsewhere in the solar system, there are almost certainly more productive uses of your time than camping in Hawaii for a year. :)




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