Unintended Practice
This James Oberg article about loneliness on ISS is kind of interesting. It's picture of Exp. 7's experiences is very interesting, but it's analogies of the isolation are stretching a little.
Yes, it's true that the previous longest two-person space mission American astronauts participated in was a Gemini flight in the 60s that was 2weeks long, there's a big difference between spending 2 weeks in a Gemini capsule and spending 6 months on ISS... about the difference between spending 2 weeks on vacation never leaving the front seats of a Volkswagen and spending 6 months on vacation in an RV the size of a three-bedroom house. And while the crew is isolated in space with no visitors for their entire tenure on ISS, the isolation is very different from most isolation experiences, in that it involves continuous human contact. Frontiersmen exploring the Old West didn't have the option of calling back home several times a day.
When Exp. 6 science officer Don Pettit was here recently, he talked about the fact that due to the glitch in the Soyuz TMA-1 capsule, his return intended up being an unplanned concept demonstrator for a mission to Mars. When astronauts return to Earth after a space mission, they're met by a recovery team that helps them get back on their feet, as it were. When astronauts land on Mars, there won't be anybody there to do that for them. Astronauts landing on the Moon, of course, didn't have any help, but the trip there is insignificant in length compared to a Mars journey, and the gravity is only half of what it is on Mars. With a mission to Mars, there has been concern about whether astronauts would be able to function when they arrived there after the atrophy involved in long-duration spaceflight. When Exp. 6 returned to Earth after a time roughly sufficient to get to Mars, due to missing the landing target by a couple of hundred miles, there was nobody there to greet them when they touched down. Nonetheless, in the full 1g gravity of Earth, the crew was able to function for hours before they were picked up, even starting work on unloading the capsule and organizing equipment. The first men on Mars, Pettit said, will be able to do the same thing.
Now, Exp. 7 is turning out to be a Martian concept demonstrator as well. The first crew to Mars will face very similar conditions, living on a long-duration space mission with no visitors. It will be a little worse, in that while human contact will continue all the way to Mars, lag times will increase the further away from Earth they go, making conversations a little less natural. However, they'll have the advantage of the fact that the Mars crew will likely consist of more than two people.
The original purpose of a permanent space station, as devised in the 1960s, was as a stepping stone to Mars. Now, through totally unplanned circumstances, ISS is fulfilling that role in ways that were never even anticipated.

:: :: 10:19 :: David :: [permalink] ::