

Crew of simulated flight to Mars completed 100 days of isolation - ygd
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/297371

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aaronblohowiak
Some of the longer transatlantic passages in the 19th century took around a
hundred days.

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kqr2
Also, modern submarines have been known to stay submerged for > 100 days. A
nuclear submarine is limited only by its food supply and psychological needs
of its crew.

[http://encyclopedia.stateuniversity.com/pages/21428/submarin...](http://encyclopedia.stateuniversity.com/pages/21428/submarine.html)

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mseebach
In both of these cases, you're in there with hundreds of others. You can
decide you're mad at dozens of them, and still find new people to talk to.
When it's for a crew of six, you're pretty much dependent on staying on good
terms with everybody.

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lotharbot
Official site of the Mars500 experiment:
<http://www.esa.int/esaMI/Mars500/index.html>

I'm a little surprised to see that none of their crew have actual space
experience.

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sown
> I'm a little surprised to see that none of their crew have actual space
> experience.

Maybe it'd be better. If we want to send large numbers of people to Mars for
mining or colonization eventually, picking a more random group of people might
be preferable. I dunno.

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executive
Jersey Shore: Mars

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ams6110
_Under the rules of the experiment, a participant who wishes to, or for any
reason must, leave the extended experimental isolation can do so, however, he
must be deemed as dead during the mission._

I wonder if this is really a good idea. Clearly it won't be an option on the
real mission.

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TGJ
You would think that would skew the data. Knowing that you can leave would
surely have an effect on your psychological state.

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retube
Yeah. Knowing you have the option of getting out - and that earth is just a
few metres away - must have a huge impact on the state of mind of the
participants. It cannot compare to the feeling of isolation knowing that you
are in a tiny tin can separated from home by 50 million miles of howling void
and many months or even years of travel time. I'd be very interested to know
how they controlled for this in their studies, if at all.

A better simulation would be to dump them on some remote artic ice sheet where
they actually can't get back. Or on the moon :)

Edit: in terms of psychological data, I'd imagine that the long flights of
some cosmonauts on Mir were a better case study.

