Returning to Mars

Posted on November 9, 2018 by Professor Taboo

In October 2016 and again in October 2017 I wrote two blog-posts about our exploration and eventual colonization of the red planet Mars. To date the Soviet Union, Great Britain, and NASA have delivered a total of seven unmanned rovers to Mars. Currently there are proposals and plans for satellite orbits, landers, rovers, and eventually crews onto Mars by the U.S., the European Space Agency, China, and Russia between the mid-2030’s and 2060. The lone private enterprise so far is SpaceX. Telling and imagining these Martian efforts on television will return again this coming Monday evening, November 12th on the National Geographic Channel’s second season of “Mars.” Getting there after around 7-months of spaceflight and surviving the first SOLs/days (or seasons of the Martian calendar) are not the only serious challenges. Coexisting with each other will be another on a long, long list of challenges that never really end.

If you think coexisting is sometimes difficult here on Earth, even with family, where we have so many benefits and luxuries we take for granted daily, then talk to Gerald Carr, Edward Gibson, and William Pogue about how in 1973 just 84-days together inside Skylab 4 turned out! The biggest major problem for those three astronauts? Workaholism. Excessive workaholism to be more accurate. But to be safe and survive way out there is workaholism what will be required of Martian travelers and colonists?

There are a number of plans from various governmental, scientific, and commercial entities already in progress to gradually move humans from “Earth-reliant” stations (currently the ISS), to “Cislunar space” that is still Earth-reliant, and then beyond our Moon into deep space travel to another planned Mars orbiting habitat/station (a transfer station, if you will), and finally onto the surface of Mars. Many supplies, equipment, and some raw materials will be waiting, shipped there for them months, years earlier. However, before the latter stages of these plans can unfold, we must first confirm that some basic elements, like water, microbes, and geothermal hot-spots underneath Martian soil, are still present in light of those components having existed in higher amounts on Mars 3.8 – 3.5 billion years ago. Dr. Dava Newman, former Deputy Administrator of NASA, explains that so far the news of necessary life-building resources on Mars are very encouraging, however:

For such a voyage [of boots on Mars], measured in years, astronauts will have to become Earth-independent, devising ways to make fuel, water, oxygen and building materials with whatever resources the Red Planet offers. If that seems as fantastical as Matt Damon growing potatoes in The Martian, Newman shrugs: Astronauts have dined on lettuce and peppers grown aboard the space station.

All the same, these are nonhuman concerns. What are the serious and pressing psychosocial challenges for space and Mars habitation? Making it to the red planet requires obvious, daunting, precise space and extra-planetary science, preparation, and training, but it requires just as much human science. Given how deterred and unfavorably psychology, neurology, biology, philosophy, and sociology (to name only five areas) have battled in the U.S. for widespread legitimacy the last century, the Human sciences are perhaps less prepared to face a life far away from our perfectly suited green and blue planet.

Here’s another influencing factor: because expeditions to Mars will likely be international collaborations, those astronauts and Martian colonists must overcome cultural differences to survive and thrive while on Mars. Communication between Earth and Martian expeditionary craft take 20-minutes to be received — which means 40-mins could pass before an answer is received on a spacecraft or Mars colony. Are these factors insurmountable? No, but they do compound the mental and behavioral health of astronauts and Martian colonists.

Your home from 127-million miles from Mars; taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter camera in Nov 2016

ISS crew-members have always praised the emotional, inspirational, and transcendental effect staring back down at Earth gives to them. But that is nothing like the possible effect of barely seeing your home as a tiny dot 35 – 37 million miles away (see MRC photo). Living in micro-gravity and zero-gravity pose several challenges on the human physiology. Space radiation has significant threats to human DNA, tissue, and cells which impact our central nervous system altering the structure and functions of the brain. Kidney stones become more common in altered gravity environments, which also leads to urinary track infections, which undetected can lead to confusion or delirium, which can be mistaken for a psychiatric disorder. And then there are the social difficulties of prolonged weightlessness and confinement of a group or crew.

In 2010-2011 the Mars-500 project, directed by the Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences, tested and studied six male participants from several countries for 520-days in a small Mars-like module. The results of the project revealed some encouraging as well as potentially significant psychosocial concerns. These ranged from friendly constructive interactions to errors in experiments and daily routines caused by sleep deprivation and exhaustion. Some crew-members became more sedentary after just 2-3 months. Their activities continued to decline for the next year. Due to the stress and exhaustion of two participants and simulated problem-events, 85% of the perceived conflicts among crew members and with mission control involved these two crew-members. For a better informed understanding of these psychosocial challenges in epic space-travel, read Mission to Mars by the American Psychological Association.

All of these concerns, however, do have some solutions. Surprisingly, cultural differences and language difficulties did not bear any significant influence. This is likely due to the fact that crew-members were so involved in each other’s daily routines and such intimacy is conducive to quicker collaboration and problem-resolution as opposed to those who are complete strangers and continents apart.

We are certainly prepared and capable of manned spacecraft to Mars and its colonization from a scientific nonhuman perspective, but are we as ready and prepared for the journey and life in deep space and on the red planet from a human sciences perspective? Maybe National Geographic Channel’s season 2 of Mars will help determine that… at least in the public’s mind, maybe. Come this Monday I will be watching and learning.

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Collaborative Ineptitude

Posted on June 26, 2011 by Professor Taboo

Even a 1-degree shift causes desolation and ice ages

Geophysicists and astrophysicists are in common agreement: Earth is in a very fragile state of ecological homeostasis. Geo and astroscientists as well as archaeologists know that the Sahara Desert was once a lush green oasis just 6,000 years ago until the earth’s axis moved less than one degree closer to the sun. This was no surprise to scientists. Our planetary wobble (or axial obliquity in scientific terms) happens about every 41,000 years in conjunction with other variations such as Jupiter’s and Saturn’s orbital gravitational forces onto earth, or shifts down in earth’s molten core resulting in major earthquakes. Earth’s axis is in perpetual flux moving ever so slightly over centuries. It is currently at 23.44 degrees and decreasing, nearing the end of another 41,000 year cycle. Unfortunately, axial obliquity and tectonic plate shifting have catastrophic effects often coupled with mass extinctions of species.

New York City after sea levels rise just 70 meters

As our protective atmosphere continues to gain more CO2 (carbon dioxide) from humans burning fossil fuels such as coal, gas, and oil making the surface more susceptible to the sun’s heat and radiation, melting the polar ice caps and pushing sea levels up over one foot per century, the homeostasis is disrupted more. Again, scientists are in agreement that by the next two or three centuries the earth’s sea levels will rise between 230 – 250 feet. Metropolitan areas such as London, New York, Paris, Berlin, Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and New Orleans will all be under water. These alarming facts are not at all apocalyptic prophecy fulfilled or the coming of some miraculous rapture. This has been simple cold hard science beginning around the First World War and today in geophysical and astrophysical communities is well-known. Earth and the solar system she belongs has always been going through violent changes. It is not a question of if or ever, but when. The more critical question is… How are we as simple human beings going to manage together the cataclysmic threats to the human race?

Five Amish teens experience “the Devil’s world”

Religious, ethnic, gender, or racial separatism will most certainly fail, and fail miserably. In the coming two centuries those four global and social discords will be mankind’s greatest challenge. How mammoth are these challenges? Regarding religious separatism, National Geographic recently aired a documentary called Amish On Break where five Amish 16 year olds take for the first time in their lives a four-week excursion outside their ultra-sheltered communities and over to Great Britain. It airs again Monday, June 27, 2011 on the National Geographic Channel. If you would like to watch a 3:35 video clip, click here.

What was most astonishing in the 1-hour episode was how naïve these teenagers were of the outside world’s real hardships or achievements. On one occasion the five sat in one of their British host’s school classrooms. The teacher read a quote from the U.S. Constitution, written of course by Thomas Jefferson, saying “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” He tried to engage the American Amish boys in the meaning and impact of those words, but they had no idea what the U.S. Constitution represented nor who Thomas Jefferson might have been; they had nothing at all to contribute to the U.S. political history class. In the Amish-Mennonite communities formal education is only from age 6 to 14 and includes just reading, writing, and mathematics. Beyond those basics the rest of their education concentrates on Amish vocational training and socialization strictly within Amish values.

On another occasion during a formal dinner, the host mother asked the Amish teenagers if they were active in any Green Movements such as recycling or if they were aware of global warming. Again, the five couldn’t explain at all what global warming involves, how CO2 increases the green-house effect, or even that their U.S. federal and state governments enact laws and policies that can directly or indirectly effect their own homes! They were silent with empty gazes for their hosts. It would be safe to assume the Amish teenagers would also not be able to speak anything on the matter of global drought and rising water shortages.

The Amish are by no means the world’s only separatist. Many other religious groups are socially less educated and unaware. Sadly, some separatists do not care for any broad education but live only to kill and die ushering in their own self-perceived after-life.

I have no ill-feelings for the Amish-Mennonite people. Unlike many religious separatists, they are some of the most peaceful respectful humans on earth. Their work ethics are to be greatly admired. Their simple humble lives offer several emotional and physical benefits to the general American high-stress, competitive lifestyle. However, I can’t help but classify their “faith” any differently than the rest of this world’s current non-militant theocracies, ecclesiocracies, or groups that have separatist-doctrines as the following:

Islāmic states (Sharia) or ethnic groups: Afghanistan, Iran, Mauritania, Oman, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan,Yemen.

Vatican City and then where Roman Catholicism is state religion: Costa Rica, Liechtenstein, Malta, Monaco, and cantons of Switzerland.

Israel (Zionism).

Click image for larger view

An even greater number of nations adhere to Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Anglican, or Lutheran tenets within their laws; 27 nations exactly. Then the rest of the planet has a seemingly infinite variety of tenets from Mormonism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and Christian Protestant like the Amish-Mennonite. Trying to decide which group contain active radical separatist movements or primarily historical movements that have become passive or completely disregarded is a frustrating task for unity. Any Fortune 100 CEO would be seriously challenged to reverse the proverbial chief-to-indian ratio to an efficient profitable working corporation. To avoid complete bankruptcy, this fictional board of directors would be attempting to coalesce a crippled workforce — all claiming absolute truth and God’s favor — just to carry out a few simple turnaround tasks. What this planet will soon be confronting is on a scale that not even the richest, most powerful Western nations, much less the religious supremacist, can dream to manage. It must be a collaborative global effort.

For the sake of the next two, three or four generations after us, it is time to seriously consider not just whether the human race will survive, it will; but more importantly maximizing how many can be spared. And for apocalyptic fatalists who proudly proclaim their ideological discriminations, the cold hard facts are that the many forces of this planetary system and its Universe doesn’t discriminate in the least. These cyclical violent changes will indeed happen and they will claim WHOMEVER they want. Religious, ethnic, gender, or racial affiliations or passive beliefs of rapture will all fall irrelevantly mute. We are clear and simple Homo Sapiens. If we have any real threats to our survival, they are only two: ourselves and the cosmos in which our submissive planet exists. One we are fully capable of managing. The other demands nothing less from us than unified collaboration.