Peter Meyers
11/3/14
Earth Science
Current Event 1
Chang, Kenneth. "In a Dome in Hawaii, a Mission to Mars." The New York Times. The New
York Times, 20 Oct. 2014. Web. 04 Nov. 2014.
In part of a volcano in Hawaii six people are preparing to spend eight months in a dome. This is an experiment created by NASA to see how people are psychologically affected after living in almost complete isolation for a long period of time. They will live in a small dome on a volcano mimicking the terrain of Mars. NASA would like to know what the long term effects of these living conditions can have on people before they send anyone to Mars which is hopefully around 2030. It is also to see how they get along and work together. The actually mission that NASA hopes to complete to Mars is over two years round trip. NASA is slightly worried about how these people will be affected. They will not send anyone to Mars until they fully understand the risks. This is not the first mission that has been done like this. Other missions with similar amounts of people have ended with the subjects losing productivity and developing sleep disorders. The people in the dome are completely cut off from society except for email which takes more than 20 minutes to send and receive. The people in the experiment are given some luxuries real astronauts on Mars would not get. For example, they can check certain websites to monitor their real lives and have a cell phone for extreme emergencies. The six people were chosen out of 150 applicants based on past experience with NASA and similar backgrounds. The three men and three women are all in their 20’s to 30’s and some aspire to go to space. So far they are getting along swimmingly and enjoying themselves greatly. It seems everyone is ver yexcited to start this mission and each person will be conducting experiments. NASA will be looking out for something called 3rd quarter syndrome. BAsically in the 1st quarter everything is new and fun, in the 2nd they begin to develop a routine. In the 4th quarter you are excited for the end but in the 3rd quarter it can be pretty miserable.
This article is relevant to us because space travel could be key to our survival. It seems that we are moving very slow in space exploration but every tiny step and experiment can be crucial. If this turns out to be a success and the people get along well perhaps we could be going to Mars sooner than we thought. And once some people go to Mars maybe we could live there. When the Earth becomes a red giant it will envelop Earth but Mars is farther away from the Sun so we could move there and it could buy us a few million years. The possibilities are infinite but we have to take it one step at a time and this experiment is a small step. Also this could have un space related benefits to humans. We can learn more about how the human brain works.
I think this was a very well written article. It was very easy to understand. The paragraphs were short and sweet and I found it very interesting. Every time I had a question the next paragraph answered it. The only thing I did not like is why it is a big deal. It seems like such a small thing in the grand scheme of things and while it is interesting I am not sure why someone wrote an article about it. The article got into great detail and explained everything you needed to know about the experiments however they could have mentioned the outcomes of similar experiments. Overall it was a very interesting and well written article.
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ReplyDeleteI learned a lot from reading Peter's article. First of all, I did not no that NASA was already preparing for potential colonization of Mars. This idea excites me and really makes me think of the future. NASA has not done anything flashy since the Moon landings, but that does not mean they are not doing anything. As this article shows, NASA is clearly doing something. I also found it interesting that the terrain of a volcano was similar to the terrain of Mars.How do they even know this? Thirdly, I found it interesting that NASA has been doing these sorts of tests for a long time. As I said earlier, I didn't know a mission to Mars was so close.
ReplyDeleteI think Peter did a good job at presenting the psychology of it. He used good adjectives such as "swimmingly" to describe the current state of the test subject. He also went into the history of these experiment to give good background info. Peter helped the reader contextualize everything and give it meaning. Peter also did a good job at explaining the relevancy. I never before considered the ideas that we may need to abandon Earth.
This review raises one question; how will this experiment turn out, and what will it mean? The result of this experiment could drastically impact the outlook and timeframe for the future missions to Mars, so I will be watching this experiment intently.
Wow Pete! Great Job. Just like William,I thought all along NASA hasn't done anything in terms of travelling to the moon, I guess I am wrong. However I did know the travelling to mars was so close and realistic. That is so exciting!
ReplyDeletePeter did a great job of making this article interesting and easy to understand. The possibilities are endless for NASA, and if you think about it, it is very awesome.