Key Highlights:
- NASA is searching for people to spend a year pretending to be alone on Mars.
- Applicants must have a master’s degree in science, engineering, or mathematics, or pilot experience.
- The experience might include “incredible freedom” in a year away from the pressures of one’s daily life.
The Hunt for Candidates
NASA is searching for people to spend a year pretending to be alone on Mars. The space agency wants individuals to apply so that it can prepare to send astronauts to Mars in the future.
Applications for four people to live in Mars Dune Alpha for a year began on August 6. The 1,700-square-foot Martian home, which was constructed using a 3D printer, is housed within a facility at Houston’s Johnson Space Center.
There will be no windows, and the candidates will eat pre-packaged space cuisine. The hired volunteers participate in a simulated Martian exploration expedition that involves spacewalks, limited contacts with home, limited food, and supplies, and equipment malfunctions.
Criterions
NASA is planning three of these tests, the first of which will begin in the autumn of 2022. Lead scientist Grace Douglas said: “We want to understand how humans perform in them. We are looking at Mars realistic situations.”
Applicants must have a master’s degree in science, engineering, or mathematics, or pilot experience. The organization also states that only American citizens or permanent US residents are eligible for the experiment, which is reminiscent of Matt Damon’s 2015 thriller The Martian.
They must be between the ages of 30 and 55, in good physical health, with no dietary restrictions, and not prone to motion sickness.
According to Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, the experiment demonstrates that NASA is seeking individuals who are comparable to astronauts, which would make it a better experiment if the volunteers were more similar to the people who would really go to the planet.
A Year away from Earth
He said that past Russian efforts at a fictitious expedition dubbed Mars 500 failed miserably, in part because the participants were too much like ordinary people. Mr. Hadfield spent five months in space in 2013 on the International Space Station, where he played guitar and sung a rendition of David Bowie’s song Space Oddity.
He said: “Just think how much you’re going to be able to catch up on Netflix. If they have a musical instrument there, you could go into there knowing nothing and come out a concert musician, if you want.”
He said that the experience might include “incredible freedom” in a “year away from the pressures of your daily life.”
Meanwhile, NASA’s newest Mars rover, Perseverance, failed in its maiden effort to collect a rock sample to be returned to Earth. The equipment bore through the Jezero Crater’s bottom to collect a finger-sized sample from slabs of flat rocks. Despite the fact that the drill appeared to function well, no rock appeared to have ended up in the sample tube.
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