
The biggest surprises from living in a simulated Martian habitat for a full year - curtis
http://newatlas.com/hi-seas-mission-one-big-question/45330/
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reddytowns
The very last sentence:

 _It 's the whole thing about living in a common space where everyone has to
share and it's difficult at times but we got through it, we're on the other
side now._

was the only mention of personal friction. I admit that I might be over
analyzing here, but it's such a strange cultural thing that we can't talk
about anything except the most positive emotions when dealing with other
people. Why is anger, hostility, annoyance，etc. so taboo to mention in public?

~~~
kingkawn
I think people feel that discussing it will only make more of it.

~~~
posterboy
that's pessimism vs optimism

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gaius
It's interesting that one person responded, with no distractions I could get
loads of stuff done, and the other responded, it was hard to get anything done
because of all the distractions. Identical circumstances but two totally
opposite interpretations of it.

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OneTwoFree
They never talk about very important factors: relationship and sex. No one can
expect that these people will just stop doing it, but it could cause serious
issues as there's nowhere to go after a break up. So they will take drugs to
suppress these emotions? What alternatives are there?

~~~
e12e
I recall reading an interview with one of the Russian cosmonauts that stayed
for a long time at Mir, mentioning something about a couple of wet dreams and
then not really thinking much about sex for the rest of his (long) stay.

Can't find the link now, but I did see Canadian Chris Hadley make a similar
(less explicit) comment in his Reddit ama:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1s4l7v/i_am_col_chris...](https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1s4l7v/i_am_col_chris_hadfield_retired_astronaut/cdturdw)

And while I'm sure people would like to think that the military have sex with
each other all the time -- I'm pretty sure people manage to avoid having sex
aboard submarines and other environments that are similar to a space
expedition: dangerous and with long days filled with taxing work in the form
of various experiments, exercises and routine tasks.

~~~
s_kilk
> people would like to think that the military have sex with each other all
> the time...

This is, in fact, the case though. It's not unheard-of for personnel to have a
casual boyfriend/girlfriend for the duration of a deployment, in a what-
happens-in-vegas way.

~~~
e12e
I'm sorry if I was unclear, I meant that sex is not that common in deployments
in constrained/mission environments without leave, like while _on board_ a
(small) submarine.

~~~
omegaham
I'm actually not so sure about this, as people have sex all the time while
aboard ship; a fan room usually ends up becoming the Love Shack. They're
working 12-hour shifts and doing extra duty on top of that, and they're still
banging. Careers get ruined when the woman shows up pregnant to sick call.

I don't know about submarines, mostly because they've been male-only until
very recent, and attitudes on homosexuality have not been and still aren't
very tolerant[1]. From the fact that Marines fuck in Porta-shitters in
Afghanistan, I'm sure that life, er, finds a way.

[1] <insert ribald Navy joke here>

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ebirebivbi
Maybe I'm antisocial, but noise from housemates drives me up the wall. I can't
relax or concentrate with the sounds of people doing things adjacent rooms,
and headphones only mask certain kinds of noises, and sometimes you don't want
to wear headphones. The hab's design would be better if it gave people more
privacy and separated the rooms around the circumference, and had better
soundproofing.

~~~
ceejayoz
It's intended to simulate a Mars mission. People like you simply won't be
going - they're not going to waste launch mass on soundproofing bedrooms.

~~~
ebirebivbi
Who says it would cost launch mass to soundproof rooms ? Use your imagination.
Everyone has their limits.

~~~
ceejayoz
> Who says it would cost launch mass to soundproof rooms ?

I'm open to zero-weight soundproofing ideas that doesn't require a significant
amount of wasted volume.

> Everyone has their limits.

And NASA'll be picking people with higher limits. If you "can't relax or
concentrate with the sounds of people doing things", sorry, but you're not
gonna wind up an astronaut anytime soon.

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nylsaar
To spend a year in such tight spaces is quite an accomplishment. I wonder what
could have been accomplished if the mission included a goal of remote material
manufacturing. It might answer can we survive together and can we thrive
together while doing so. Plus, I'd love to see what material could be made
using Unmanned Ground Vehicles.

~~~
Animats
It's not a self-contained environment. They didn't have to grow food or
recycle air. That was Biosphere II, which was a huge flop.

~~~
Pyxl101
Is it fair to call that experiment a flop? It failed to achieve its goals of
running a self-sustaining colony, but it sounds like we learned a lot about
the challenges of doing so from running that experiment. I don't know if we
should expect success on the first or second try of designing a self-
sustaining ecosystem. Plus, didn't they last most of the 2 year period they
were intended to? (I'm not an expert on it)

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hownottowrite
Hi-Seas crew journal entries:
[http://livefrommars.life](http://livefrommars.life)

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Dowwie
Wouldn't mindfulness meditation help change such a confined experience?

Also, I thought that astronauts had such full schedules that extracurricular
activities were limited?

~~~
ceejayoz
> Also, I thought that astronauts had such full schedules that extracurricular
> activities were limited?

That was the case until they mutinied.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_7#.22Mutiny.22_in_space](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_7#.22Mutiny.22_in_space)

~~~
Dowwie
this was good reading :)

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endgame
DON'T POP A NEWSLETTER FORM OVER THE TEXT I AM TRYING TO READ.

I'm sure this is an interesting article but the only way we will stop this
practice is if we stop giving user-hostile publications our eyeballs.

~~~
Paul_S
...or you could use an adblocker - they block more than just ads (at least the
good ones do).

~~~
ccvannorman
Mine didn't work on this site. Most newsletter popups are home grown and
adblockers don't work on them.

I just ignore them and try not to visit the site again if possible. (well done
marketing geniuses! Was that your goal?)

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Sam_Harris
HUGE POP UP when trying to read it. Gave up.

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otabdeveloper
We're going to settle Venus way, way before we're going to settle Mars.

These projects should focus on exploring ways to build big blimps instead.

