Stress on Simulated Mars Was Not What I Expected
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Given the history of long-duration missions, this is markedly different from what I expected. After a honeymoon phase, space crews in circumstances like ours—crowded, separated from home and family, and stuck in banal routines—can become listless and depressed. Whether in real or simulated space, the daily and weekly regimentation of everything we do for the sake of safety and efficiency—like swapping air filters, filing reports with ground control, running someone else’s experiments, and so on—as well as our lack of power to break or even affect the pattern, can become oppressive. The Russian space program dubbed the dysphoria that consequently arises “asthenia”, meaning “without strength.”
On sMars, the conditions for asthenia are certainly in place. At various points in the last 100 days, our confinement and isolation has left most of us feeling restless, bored, or slightly trapped. Social media is no refuge, since it’s used mainly for outreach and by mission support. If we want to talk to someone outside this dome, we send an email, a voice recording, or a video, and wait at least 40 minutes—to simulate the distance between Earth and Mars—for a response. As for popping out for a drink …Let’s just say it’s not so easy to sip espresso while tucked into a spacesuit: the only way we go outside on simulated Mars.
Yet, through it all, asthenia has yet to appear. Here’s why, I think: On sMars, each of us knows how un-alone we are and how essential each person on our mission is. The doctor, the biologist, the physicist, the soil scientist, the engineer, and the architect count on each other for nearly everything we need. I don’t grow the crops, repair the drones, extract the water from the ground, or fix the hab. Other people, backed by distant mission support, do that, every day.
As the crew physician, my job is to be responsible for everyone’s physical well being; looking after our minds goes hand-in-hand. I’ve kept an eye out for interpersonal stress, and weakness from it. Instead, I’ve found a heightened awareness of interdependence. When no one in this dome is replaceable, and when the expectation of seeing one of these crucial crewmembers is disappointed, that’s extremely stressful—far more so than sharing a small space with five others I’ve come to depend on for my daily survival.
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http://nautil.us/blog/stress-on-simulated-mars-was-not-what-i-expected
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Let them start competing against each other for low-wage jobs and we'll see how long that smug bonhomie lasts. 
