Men emerge from Mars experiment | Hacker News Reader

Men emerge from Mars experiment

news.bbc.co.uk

17 pointstheklub29 comments

I wonder why no women were involved in the experiment. Will we not be sending women on the first mission to mars? Also, I would imagine that regular sexual activity would make for a more placid social environment.

How does citizenship work for the results?

Martian?

This maybe the case that you are looking for homosexual/asexual astronauts for avoiding problems.

blink you don't know many homosexuals, do you?

Their relationships are just as complex and their breakups just as fraught as heterosexuals.

Last time I checked a homosexual couple weren't going to be having any baby martians while they were there.

we just need stem cell tech to generate sperms and ova from males or females.

But if you consider and want an system has stability population, maybe what you said is right.

I don't know a lot. I know some of my friends before and I knew their breaking ups and making ups was as dramatic as heterosexuals. There were military suicide case in Taiwan when heart broken soldiers shoots all his platoon with his M-16.

But at least in context of not giving birth to martians and current biotech progress, that is the way I can think of.

No, women would go on the Venus mission.

(I'm sorry, I tried to stop myself, I really did.)

You would need to have couples in a long-term committed relationship, and everyone would need a partner. I think anything less than that would lead to problems.

One of the sexes would need to be made infertile also.

I guess you've never seen a fight between a man and a woman who used to be sexual partners?

I'd guess the answer to the isolation problem is increased reliance on virtual worlds and online interaction. Though the lag might be dreadful when communicating with the Earthlings.

the lag might be dreadful when communicating with the Earthlings

That was an interesting aspect of the experiment. It's hard to phone a friend when each exchange of the conversation takes twenty minutes each way

http://athena.cornell.edu/kids/bn_special_report.html

to travel to the other end of the conversation.

Asimov proposed that this problem be solved but both parties not waiting for a response before continuing to talk. I can't remember what the name of the short story this was a part of though, ring any bells with anyone?

I've worked with many people who talked this way.

Some may revel in the return of the 'letter'. Lost art of correspondence and all that...

That's basically the premise of Virtuality (new TV series by BSG creators):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtuality_(TV_series)

Pity the pilot wasn't picked up, it looked quite promising.

500 days? Thats almost 2 years of your life given over to essentially a useless experiment. What are they going to learn? People don't like cramped conditions, but they can deal with it. Give them movies and books to read and don't be a d*ck when you have to share some cramped space with people.

Are they going to cancel the mission to mars if it turns out people would become extra-irritable?

I don't think it's only about social and psychologic issues. Prolonged lack of gravity can cause real health problems. Certain aspects of it can be imitated on earth - for example by lying in bed at a certain angle so that more blood flows to your head..

Just because you are not an expert and do not see the pitfalls does not mean that there aren't any.

"Are they going to cancel the mission"

Unlikely, but they may consider postponing until a bigger spaceship is available or trying other crew formulations.

Or if they can put you into a 'sleep like' state...

Well, quite. Best recruits for a Mars mission will be nuclear submariners. They're used to operating complex systems in cramped conditions in closed social groups.

Modern nuclear submarines are not cramped.

Hats off to the volunteers. That's a lot to do and not even get to go to Mars.

I don't see a reason for these useless and throwing life away experiences if the purpose is just making the astronauts used to isolation. I kind of get it if it's to study something psychological, but we have so many prisoners in almost the same conditions...

After the moon, everything is just too far away to travel. We can study Mars very well with the robot approach. We're just throwing astronauts life away for our stupid need of putting Men in Mars, which I dare say is utterly pointless.

About "throwing lives away" - it's a volunteer gig, and there will always be people who will take risks that you won't. Jim McLane points out that the easiest part of mounting a one-way flight to Mars would be finding people to send.

Pointless? For all we know we will be the first species (anywhere in existence) to go to another planet. The prospect of stepping foot on an foreign planet blows my mind away. Before I get carried away, I'll just assume you're flamebaiting.

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