One thing I find consistently missing from these sorts of discussions: Sex.
I get that we have a social taboo against talking about it. But really, can we isolate small groups of humans in faraway places and not expect that this will become a major issue? Do we only send couples? What happens when couples split or one member dies? Or does NASA think they can find a perfectly asexual team to send to Mars? Or is this subject simply being ignored completely?
A close friend of mine was on a previous Hi-SEAS, and I can say that this was also one of the first questions we asked of them upon their return to Earth. According to my friend (who I'm not identifying out of respect for their privacy), the, uh, 'interpersonal relations' are in fact both manifest and juicy, and are a very substantial part of what they cover during the extensive surveys and debriefs that take place during and after the mission. It's a big part of what they're studying, even if they don't talk about it publicly.
They might send some porn and maybe give the crew some privacy.. but really, if they are focused on how not to die in the next 72 hours for the duration of the mission, this might not be as big a problem as you think.
Psychiatrists and psychologists often need to vent to a peer to deal with being the person who counsels others.
I imagine or hope that some cross training is performed in the sMARS mission so that one person who is incapacitated doesn't create a cascade of other problems (e.g., the French biologist can't attend to the life-sustaining Cyanobacteria).
A crew member suffering a mental breakdown could doom the mission. Is her medical kit stocked with sedatives? Does increased radiation exposure alter brain structure?
So many risks that we know of and some that we don't.
You know, among the religious, there are still a few people out there who swear vows of chastity and go their whole life without sex. It's not really an irresistibly powerful human need like, say, oxygen. If there's a real good reason like SPACE I'm sure we could find a few qualified people who would be willing to abstain for the rest of their life; it's not a deal-breaker on the scales that the earliest space colonies will be recruiting from.
Granted, long-term colonization with a permanent population is obviously going to need some (and it will probably be small-town awkward for a while, and having your family life be everyone's business because of population and resource planning may be an interesting step backwards for today's liberated culture) but we can worry about that after we have nonzero population on Mars.
Oxygen is a rather high bar to compare against; by that standard you can do without food and water too.
You may indeed be able to find a dozen people that claim to be willing to abstain from sex for the rest of their lives. You might even find a dozen fervent believers whose religions are sufficiently compatible that they don't kill each other before the end of the mission. But if you put them in a box for the rest of their lives, I would not bet that these vows of chastity will hold. And what then? Punishment? Voted off the space station for having sex? This sounds like a recipe for repression on a level that would impress the Saudis.
The Catholic Church can't even reliably enforce chastity among its professional clergy. I don't think this issue can be waved away.
Agreed. This is definitely not as big a problem as some people make it out to be. I mean, imagine this being posted to Ask HN tomorrow:
"Hello, this is the director of NASA. We need two programmers for an upcoming Mars mission. No remote options, sorry, you must actually go to Mars. For reasons, you must be castrated before the mission, among many other preparations. There is a 1/100 chance of death,and a 4/100 chance of return to Earth without landing on Mars. The remaining 95/100 scenarios involve being among the first humans to establish a beachhead for the species on another planet. Please email your résumé to [email protected]. 20 years of jQuery preferred."
Do you think they would have any trouble filling that spot?
[+] [-] stickfigure|10 years ago|reply
I get that we have a social taboo against talking about it. But really, can we isolate small groups of humans in faraway places and not expect that this will become a major issue? Do we only send couples? What happens when couples split or one member dies? Or does NASA think they can find a perfectly asexual team to send to Mars? Or is this subject simply being ignored completely?
[+] [-] mcmatterson|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] skriticos2|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] elorant|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] JBiserkov|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] autopov|10 years ago|reply
Psychiatrists and psychologists often need to vent to a peer to deal with being the person who counsels others.
I imagine or hope that some cross training is performed in the sMARS mission so that one person who is incapacitated doesn't create a cascade of other problems (e.g., the French biologist can't attend to the life-sustaining Cyanobacteria).
A crew member suffering a mental breakdown could doom the mission. Is her medical kit stocked with sedatives? Does increased radiation exposure alter brain structure?
So many risks that we know of and some that we don't.
[+] [-] fennecfoxen|10 years ago|reply
Granted, long-term colonization with a permanent population is obviously going to need some (and it will probably be small-town awkward for a while, and having your family life be everyone's business because of population and resource planning may be an interesting step backwards for today's liberated culture) but we can worry about that after we have nonzero population on Mars.
[+] [-] dang|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] stickfigure|10 years ago|reply
You may indeed be able to find a dozen people that claim to be willing to abstain from sex for the rest of their lives. You might even find a dozen fervent believers whose religions are sufficiently compatible that they don't kill each other before the end of the mission. But if you put them in a box for the rest of their lives, I would not bet that these vows of chastity will hold. And what then? Punishment? Voted off the space station for having sex? This sounds like a recipe for repression on a level that would impress the Saudis.
The Catholic Church can't even reliably enforce chastity among its professional clergy. I don't think this issue can be waved away.
[+] [-] LeifCarrotson|10 years ago|reply
"Hello, this is the director of NASA. We need two programmers for an upcoming Mars mission. No remote options, sorry, you must actually go to Mars. For reasons, you must be castrated before the mission, among many other preparations. There is a 1/100 chance of death,and a 4/100 chance of return to Earth without landing on Mars. The remaining 95/100 scenarios involve being among the first humans to establish a beachhead for the species on another planet. Please email your résumé to [email protected]. 20 years of jQuery preferred."
Do you think they would have any trouble filling that spot?
[+] [-] eveningcoffee|10 years ago|reply
We also know that very often sexual relations form spontaneously in a small closed group.
Based on this I find your comment irrelevant and bordering an insult.