520 day Mars Project

Recently, six "cosmonauts" locked themselves away into four steel containers at a Russian research institute to simulate a return journey to Mars. The six researchers, working in cooperation with the European Space Agency, will be locked away for 520 days without windows and direct communication with the outside world. There will be a time delay between text and radio messages which will simulate the time delays of a real space flight. Even though they will be closely monitored, they will be expected to resolve any engineering or medical problems without help from the outside world other than via radio communication. Presumably, they will not be let out unless there is a real emergency.

The people agreeing to this experiment must be very special indeed. A 105 day pilot scheme has already been carried out without the crew suffering obvious ill effects. Submariners, also, often spend many months submerged at sea without problems. But 520 days; I would not last for a weekend. The thought of doing something like this appals me and fills me with awe.

Above all, I would not be able to accept the isolation from family and friends and I would not attempt to work on a project such as this from this point of view alone.

I feel slightly claustrophobic in confined spaces, and I am reluctant to to go down mines or caves, so this would also mitigate against sealing myself up in capsules which have a total volume of 550 cubic metres with 5 other people.

I believe that man and all the other animals and plants on the planet have evolved to have an intimate biological and psychological relationship (at least in the case of mammals) with the earth. It would be very difficult for most humans to be isolated from the sights, sounds, smells and feelings of our natural environment. It would be very difficult to maintain my sanity if I was deprived of the smell of fresh air, the sound of birdsong or the sight of the sun and the feeling of the warmth of sunlight. I certainly would not isolate my self in an Arctic or Antarctic camp during the long winter nights. I would not isolate myself on a spacecraft for a long period.

In my opinion the Apollo astronauts who visited the moon showed not only exceptional bravery but exceptional mental stability. They were able to endure both the isolation and the risks of venturing to a place where there was no hope of rescue. At least on planet earth, it is possible to escape by use of your own resources if you are isolated or marooned in the jungle, the Arctic or the Antarctic - witnessed by Earnest Shackleton's adventures, for instance.

The "520 day cosmonauts" have entombed themselves in the knowledge that they are able to escape if they are in danger of going mad or there is a real emergency. Real astronauts, on the way to Mars, will be almost totally isolated and dependent on their own resources without any chance of escape or real help if something goes wrong; so there is an additional psychological burden to be overcome.

I believe that the isolation from the home planet coupled with the vast distances will be a limiting factor that could prevent inter-stellar travel by mankind. Even at half the speed of light any return journey to a neighbouring star would take many years and the distances are beyond our imagination. The risks are also beyond imagination. Who would attempt such a journey?

If other creatures have evolved on extra solar planets they are probably animals like us, and are equally as committed to their home planet as we are to the Earth. The chances of us meeting extra solar beings are, therefore, remote. No doubt they would send robots to explore alien solar systems but the costs would be enormous and that is another factor which could prevent us from
meeting either our extra solar neighbours or their agents.

The search for alien life should, however, continue, if only out of curiosity and for man to find his true place in the Galaxy and the Universe.