Three men and three women participated in the Mars simulation experiment and were isolated from the world for one year. What kind of experience is this?

1973 On May 4th, NASA put the first space station "Space Laboratory" in American history into Earth orbit, and then the space station ran in space for about 8 months. After the space laboratory was in place, the ground began to transport astronauts to it. In the first transport mission, Apollo spacecraft sent three astronauts to the space station, and they worked and lived together in 36 meters of space.

However, it was not long before the three astronauts began to show negative emotions and even refused to contact the ground. Later, in response to the ground personnel, three astronauts returned to Earth safely. Some psychologists have investigated this problem and think that the life of astronauts in the space station has caused great psychological fluctuations. After all, they hardly do anything except look out the window every day.

This makes some scientists think about a problem. In the future, if human beings want to immigrate to Mars, someone must first arrive at Mars to establish a base. For them, life on Mars is no different from life on the space station, so are these Mars pioneers competent? In order to verify this problem, NASA built a simulated habitat for space exploration in Hawaii and conducted a simulation experiment at the Mars base there.

Who participated in the simulation experiment of Mars base?

In the Mars simulation base in Hawaii, NASA built a hemispherical fence with a height of 6 meters and a diameter of about 1 1 m to simulate the base built by humans in the early days of Mars. It is understood that the closed warehouse is well equipped, with 6 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, and other equipment is arranged according to the needs of daily life. This closed warehouse is almost isolated from the outside world. If the participants want to leave the warehouse, they must wear heavy spacesuits.

Since the closed warehouse is isolated from the outside world, how can people live inside? In terms of power supply, a large number of solar cells are arranged on the ceiling of the hemispherical closed cabin for solar power generation. In addition, the cabin is also equipped with six bicycle generators. If it is cloudy, volunteers can also generate electricity by pedaling bicycles.

What's life like in the simulation base?

At first, the outside world will provide six volunteers with some food and long-term crop seeds, and then no food will be provided, so volunteers need to learn to grow crops to get food while consuming food. So how to solve the water problem? The outside world will provide a certain amount of water to the closed warehouse every two months, but the supply is limited, so volunteers need to use devices to treat the sewage inside, so as to realize water circulation.

Although there are six small bedrooms in the closed warehouse, people living in them have almost no privacy, because everyone looks up and doesn't look down. In addition, each volunteer's clothes are equipped with sensors to record their interactions. There are cameras in many corners of the closed warehouse, and volunteers have to do a questionnaire survey similar to psychological test every month. In short, people who live in it will have a strong sense of freshness at first, and then they will feel that they are living under the supervision of the outside world.

In the closed warehouse, volunteers have almost nothing to do except think about how to survive every day. If they miss the outside world, they can only get close to the peephole in a closed warehouse and watch the outside world through a limited field of vision.

Why do you want to conduct such an experiment?

After the United States sent astronauts to the space laboratory for the first time, scientists realized that the environment in space would have an impact on the physiology and psychology of astronauts, and this impact would become more and more obvious as time went on. In order to further study the psychological changes of astronauts in extraterrestrial space, scientists put forward the above-mentioned simulation experiment, and tracked the psychological changes of survey participants through real-time detection of sensors and monthly questionnaire survey.

Although the closed warehouse is still built on the earth, the activity space of volunteers is greatly limited, and the people around it remain unchanged for a long time. This situation is similar to the future astronauts building bases on Mars. Therefore, if we can find the problems of this lifestyle through simulation experiments in advance, then scientists can come up with corresponding countermeasures in advance.

What's it like to live in a closed warehouse for a year?

Secondly, their activity space is very limited, just like being imprisoned, and human nature advocates freedom, so not many people can accept this treatment. Living in such a situation for a long time, some people will become numb, and some people will show their desire for life outside. Therefore, some volunteers expressed their strong desire to jump into the sea to swim and enjoy the world's delicious food after leaving the closed warehouse.

From this point of view, it is difficult for ordinary people to live in the same closed space for a long time, which is an important problem that scientists need to help astronauts overcome in the future.

How far is life on Mars?

Humans can't land on Mars yet, but they are already imagining life on Mars. Many imaginations describe life on Mars as interesting and exciting. What is the actual situation? In order to explore the actual situation, scientists designed a simulation experiment to make people know life on Mars more rationally and reduce unrealistic fantasies.

It is reported that the United States will send astronauts to Mars in 2025 and build a Mars base in 2035, which has outlined a beautiful picture of emigrating to Mars. However, 20021year has passed, and the United States and many countries are still struggling in the quagmire of COVID-19. To achieve such a grand goal, mankind still has a long way to go.