Could you live 520 days in a capsule with 5 other people?

[Liberal_in_LA]

http://www.tgdaily.com/space-features/50061-see-you-next-year-mission-to-mars-simulation-begins

See you next year: 'mission to Mars' simulation begins

ESA's simulated Mars mission is now underway, as the volunteers today shut themselves into the Mars500 isolation project.

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The hatch will remain closed until November next year, and the crew will have to manage using only the stored food and equipment. One hopes they won't be reduced to eating each other.

Only electricity, water and some air will be fed into the compartments from outside.

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They can exercise up to two hours a day, but will shower only once a week, lending new meaning to the words 'alien atmosphere'.

Outside help will be given only in extreme situations, says ESA.

[Posteritatis]

1. Depends on the people, doesn't it? (nt)

[xchrom]

2. i'm an only child -- so no. nt

[xchrom]

3. it posted twice - yikes. nt

[indy legend]

4. Only if none of the other four are Republif*%ks

[Liberal_in_LA]

6. Obama, yes - Palin, no?

[Dennis Donovan]

5. If the ultimate destination is Mars, absolutely!

...however, I won't have a shot at it. I'm male, and everyone knows that Mars needs women!!:D

[izquierdista]

7. A qualified yes

They would have to all be fantastic sex partners.

[hlthe2b]

8. How small is the capsule?

Can they do "sponge-baths"?

A large enough enclosure, with some privacy sections might be doable. They would certainly need somewhere to go to decompress and get away from others.

[Liberal_in_LA]

15. at least 3 compartments, one the size of a bendy bus - , we have those in LA

Bendy buses are looong.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/jun/02/mars-500-countdown-mission-moscow

The crew, three Russians, two Europeans and one Chinese, will spend most of their 18-month stay in the "habitable module" of the spaceship, a steel capsule the size of a bendy bus that has six sparsely furnished bedrooms built into it.

Another capsule attached to the living quarters contains a gym, an artificial greenhouse and space for supplies such as food and water. A third capsule is the medical room.

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The crew will spend 250 days performing flight tasks and experiments on their "journey to the Red Planet" before climbing into a mockup of a landing module, from which they will step out in spacesuits onto a simulated Martian surface. After 30 days working on the surface – essentially a large sandpit – the crew face a 240-day "return trip".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/jun/02/mars-500-countdown-mission-moscow

[canetoad]

9. No fekkin way! nt

[Drunken Irishman]

10. No...

I spent three days in a cabin a few years ago because we were stuck up in the mountains during a major snowstorm. By the end of the last day, I was about to murder the three I was with.

[Ikonoklast]

11. Thank you for your forbearance,

...Mr. Donner.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

14. LOL, good one!

:rofl:

[pink-o]

12. no. I don't even like when my neighbors get too close to my front yard.

I have about as much of a life as the unibomber--only without the schizophrenia and tin foil hat stuff and all. But the hermit-y part--oh yeah. My species pisses me off, the last thing I want is to see us expand into the universe and I sure as hell wouldn't want to share the experience in a tiny tin can!

[Warpy]

24. I'm not as much of a misanthrope

but I'm just as much of a hermit, mostly due to health issues and partly due to the fact that I'm just sick of how mean people out there are getting.

Eventually they're going to realize it's not a competition and that we're going to survive only by helping each other out. Until that happens, I'm barricaded inside my house, venturing out only when the food supply runs low.

[Jamastiene]

47. I'll be sure to let you know if any houses near me become available.

We sound compatible when it comes to being neighbors. I don't want anybody too close to my yard either.

[Blue-Jay]

13. Sure, if I had some books and earplugs.

[1955doubledie]

16. five 18-22 year old females...no clothes...plenty to drink and smoke...

I think I could handle that. }(

[Liberal_in_LA]

17. DU sexism

[Rowdyboy]

34. 5 18-22 year old males, no clothes, plenty to smoke and drink....

DU homo-Sexism? Sure, but lots of potential for good clean fun....

[BR_Parkway]

36. Clean as long as you get each guy on his shower day or shortly thereafter

[AnnetteJacobs]

35. FWIW, I could handle five guys

If they were all George Clooney. :)

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

18. Could? Maybe. Would? I'd rather fry my earlobes.

[Ezlivin]

19. As an ex-submariner

Yes. You'll probably find a lot of submariners who could endure the isolation and tight spaces.

The key is to stay busy and to keep your mind focused on anything other than where you are and how little space you have. After all, it's just a mind game.

[HereSince1628]

20. If I had enough good Chianti (sp??) and fava beans

[frebrd]

21. I'd rather die! eom

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

22. I can't cope with driving to San Francisco,

I think space travel is out of the question for me,

[Rabrrrrrr]

23. I could live for the 520 days, yes. But not sure if I'd live the whole thing with all 5 others.

Just sayin'.

[Incitatus]

25. Yes, I could.

I wouldn't volunteer to do it in a simulation. If I was actually going to Mars, I would.

[petronius]

51. Yeah, that's my feeling too. If the reward was visiting Mars I'd go for it,

but sitting in a bus knowing that all the pleasures of civilization are just a doorknob away? No thanks...

[NoGOPZone]

26. Do I get to pick the people?

I think you've got the makings of a contest here. Name the 5 DUers you'd most like to be stuck in a capsule with for 520 days.

[Liberal_in_LA]

29. nope, but obviously they'll be people picked cuz they can cope

[immune]

27. Yes

If I was in a coma.

[elocs]

28. To be honest, I really don't care for people other than casual contact.

There's no way I would spend 5 minutes in a capsule with 5 other people.

[proteus_lives]

30. Probably not.

But experiments like this are important.

The future is in the stars.

[treestar]

31. No way

But then I'm not fanatical to go to Mars. The right people could do it - they'd have to be focused on the idea of the trip - being the first to go to Mars might inspire them.

[RC]

32. We are already on a capsule. One with almost 7 billion other people.

However when the die off we are causing starts in earnest, all bets are off.

[SPedigrees]

33. I couldn't last 20 minutes in a capsule with other people.

I require 10 hours of absolute solitude per day at a minimum, and limited exposure to humans the rest of the time.

[GreenStormCloud]

37. I don't see a reason for a manned mission to Mars.

Wait a few decades and robotic artificial intelligence will be able to do anything a human could do, and without the need for life support. Mars will still be there, so there is no hurry.

[Cleita]

38. I lived ten years in a travel trailer with my husband and three cats.

Do the cats count as people? Between their potty and other accessories they took up space as well. Privacy was unknown for all of us in that period.

[Posteritatis]

39. One assumes the trailer had doors, though. (nt)

[AngryAmish]

40. I'd need a lot of beer

520 x 12 to 18...

[Hempathy]

41. Possibly...

If it includes PLENTY of weed, an extensive dvd library with BIG screen plasma tv...and the other 5 people are all hot nymphomaniac females.

[Art_from_Ark]

42. The astronauts in the picture are all men

If it's an all-man crew, then forget it

[Stevenmarc]

43. Well if they were hot enough, this group, not so much.

[Peacetrain]

44. Probably not.. especially with showering only once a week..

I get crabby if I have to go a day without showering..I cannot imagine what a week would be like..

[Jamastiene]

45. Only if they sent us all up along with five body bags.

I live in a rural area and my neighbors are pretty far away...but that's still too close for my comfort. I don't like even having neighbors, much less would I want to be trapped with 5 other people for any amount of time. Knowing myself the way I do, I wouldn't be trapped the full 520 days with them. It would be either them or me.

[Synicus Maximus]

46. Can I kill one or two if they get on my nerves?

If not then I don't think so.

[Aristus]

48. I used to spend 30 days at a time in one of these:

with 3 other guys. Monotonous diet, minimal hygiene, and long periods of boredom. We got plenty of fresh air and sunshine, and still got on each others nerves after a while. If I were to go on the Mars trip, my fellow travelers would have to be a lot like me, or I wouldn't be able to get along with them...

[Kaylee]

49. It's the lack of fresh, outdoors air on this mission that would kill me

The knowledge that I couldn't go outside would drive me insane. I hate being cooped up and even hate cross country flights.

[SPedigrees]

50. Funny how many of us on DU are self-professed hermits!

I've always felt like a minority in this regard, but I guess not so much in this forum.