Do you think you have what it takes to live
on Mars?
Well, it just so happens the NASA is looking for
participants for its next Mars simulation.
The deadline for the second Crew Health and Performance Exploration
Analog mission,
also called TAPIA, is April 2nd.
Participants will spend one year inside the Mars Dune Alpha
Simulator at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Texas,
experiencing typical environmental stressors and the limited resources of the
Red Planet.
So for more on this,
we want to bring in Christiane Hindeke.
She is a researcher at the Center of Applied Space
Technology and Microgravity at the University of Raymond and the
scientific coordinator of the initiative Humans on Mars.
And she participated in a similar test a few years
ago.
So I don't want us to run that time.
So I'm going to quickly just say your test was
something very similar.
It was in Hawaii and sort of like a volcanic
landscape,
so kind of looks like what we think Mars looks
like,
right? And you were in kind of,
but you had to pretend like it was Mars.
So you would go out every so often,
but you had to wear a space suit,
50 lbs. Really heavy. And the focus of these sort
of studies is to look at the emotional,
psychological, mental impact of being in a space like this.
I thought it was fascinating.
Can you talk to me about some of the things
that,
you know that organizers consider when choosing the personalities that
participate in these sort of
experiments?
Yes, of course. Of course.
I'll be happy to. So one of the most important
things really is that you as a person,
I mean, you need to bring some technical qualifications because
you know,
someone needs to repair the habitat,
someone needs to be able to fly,
you know, the, the Lander.
But more importantly, actually, you have to be a team
player.
You have to work together with the other people.
You have to put the team priorities higher than your
own priorities.
So that's the the most important thing.
And the other thing is,
I mean, sometimes things don't go as smoothly as you
would like them to to go.
So you need to be adaptable,
you need to be tolerant,
you need to be able to really,
when there's a conflict coming up,
you need to, you know,
actively look for solutions in a in a very factual
manner.
So no, not too emotional,
but really look actively for solutions for compromises together.
So how long were you in this
simulation?
So our simulation lasted exactly
366 days. It was a leap year,
so a year basically. OK,
so I'm curious about, so everyone is,
you know, an expert in their field,
and I'm sure they've been tested in terms of their
personality so that,
you know, to ensure that everyone works well together.
But that's the way you feel on day one.
When you're on day 300,
What were some of the things that came up that
surprised you?
Well, after some time, you know,
you, you already, you know your crew members,
your crew mates very, very well.
So after a while, when you have an argument or
a discussion,
you already know the arguments that the others will bring
during that discussion.
And so one of the recurring themes that we had
and our discussions were about safety and this is something
I did not really expect.
So we were discussing this and we found compromises,
but then the next time we had again we had
some,
some discussions again about safety but different aspects.
And so this was something I did not really anticipate
and that
you know I always thought you know we can find
solutions for everything,
but then some, some things just cannot be dissolved.
So the challenge really is to still keep working together
as a team and to really help each other
and to make the mission work.
And that's really the most important priority to,
to get the mission to her.
I thought it was really interesting that you said that
some of the things that you missed were the feeling
of wind on your skin and the feeling of warmth,
the warmth of the sun,
because this is all stuff that you weren't able to
feel.
Obviously it took 20 minutes to get a message from
Earth,
so you couldn't really maintain the contacts that you expected
you might be able to with family members.
And the other thing that I thought was really interesting
is you identified a real a key difference in motivation
that people who were motivated by a personal challenge,
we're more likely to compromise when problems came up versus
people who were motivated by a desire to become an
astronaut,
maybe in the future. Oh God,
there's so many more things.
OK, one last question. Would you do it again?
Oh, yes, I would.
The, the, the experience is really
one-of-a-kind. And also the landscape is really unique.
And I mean, I love rock.
So that I guess helps being interested in Mars.
And also if I got the chance to go to
Mars,
I would go. All right.
Christianity, thank you so much.
Thank you.