Going on Mars will involve all kinds of risks. Going bonkers could be the biggest.

Experts in human behavior recognize that isolation and containment can push even disciplined astronauts to breaking point. The International Space Station medical kit contains anti-anxiety medications and anti-depressants as well as sedatives and physical restraints, just in case. The psychological stress of a mission on Mars will be far greater, perhaps the greatest ever encountered by a human traveler.

"When you are taken with people during these long periods, micro-stimuli can become really irritating" Binsted, a psychologist from the University of Hawaii who studies the effects of manned spaceflight. "Let's say you can not stand the way your teammate chews his cereal." All of a sudden, it's going to "Eh, I'd like him to shut his mouth over". I will stab him. "

Make a Mars Mars on Earth

The possibility of such extreme breakdowns is one of the main reasons why Binsted has created a program of realistic mock-ups of the Mars mission called Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation, or HI-SEAS. The mechanical aspects of a mission on Mars can be tested with laboratory models or computer simulations, she notes, but the only way to really understand the psychological challenges is to get real people through the world. # 39; wringer. Research Analog (HERA), which conducted extensive tests on the isolation of the crew for 45 days at a time. Antarctic expeditions and submarine crews produce greater endurance tests, closer to what astronauts will encounter on a trip to Mars, but they usually do not last more than six months. "For astronauts, it's too short," says Binsted. "We do not really see group effects until after about six months;"

HI-SEAS researchers therefore confine their crews of four to six volunteers inside a 1,200 square foot habitat on the Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii for a full year and keep an eye on what's going on, while during their stay in the interior, the fake astronauts receive the full treatment of Mars: extreme isolation, 30-second showers and delayed communications. space suits are also mandatory for all excursions beyond the simulated airlock

The biggest lesson of HI-SEAS up here is that each crew ends up fighting, although the group dynamics leading to conflict is different at every time. "It was a bit disappointing for NASA because they hoped we could put a bow on it and say," As long as you avoid this particular stressor, your crew will be fine. " ", says Binsted.

However, this disappointment has become an important point of view. There is a general recipe for success: having a good match between the personalities of the crew members, especially what Binsted calls their "leadership and follow-up styles". Some crews work best with a military style up and down, others with a more democratic arrangement. As long as the team leaders and the rest of the team are stylistically compatible, the missions tend to run smoothly.

Spotting Psychological Problems

Even with glimpses from five HI-SEAS missions, unexpected events may still occur. Easily disrupt the harmony in Hawaii's home. The most recent outing, HI-SEAS VI, ended prematurely in February when a crew member had to be hospitalized after suffering an electrical shock. The crew members had pbadionate discussions – first on the opportunity to call 911, then on whether or not to continue the simulation after the break. HI-SEAS VI was the first mission to give up.

Lauren Blackwell Landon, a NASA psychologist in Houston, says that similar and smaller frictions are breaking out all the time aboard the ISS, despite the rotating teams and communication with the ground. In one incident (recorded in anonymous astronaut journals), an astronaut described how a routine photo shoot turned into an acrimonious conflict, writing that "I thought we were going to lose a limb of the astronaut." Crew during this one. "