KBTV

KBTV::Kate’s Trip to Mars!

OK. I know it’s Monday – and Mondays are tough. But they’re a whole lot better when I really like the story I’m broadcasting. And this morning…let’s just say I was happy. I have always wanted to be an astronaut – and today, I thought, I can live a little vicariously!

Welcome to KBTVonline. I’m Kate Bohner. This morning … Let’s talk about OuterSpace! Astronauts have guestimated for years that the first trip to Mars would not likely happen until about 2040. But for a crew of six volunteers, a “Mars Trip” could come a whole lot sooner. The European Space Agency … known as the ESA … announced that it’s looking for six people to spend 17 months in an isolation tank as part of a “simulated Mars trip.” The aim of the 520-day simulation is to study human behavior and the group dynamics of deep-space travel.

The six crew members will live and work in a network of interlocked modules at a research institute in Moscow. The “space ship” is nearly 20,000 cubic feet long, about the size of nine truck containers. Once the volunteers are shut inside, their only contact with the outside world will be radio with a realistic time-delay of several minutes.

The volunteers will be put through a number of simulations – takeoff, a 250-day journey, excursions on the “Martian surface,” and a return flight home. The ESA has already received about 150 applicants (19 of which are women) for this Mars simulation that will start sometime in late 2008 or early 2009. And this is where it gets exciting. The results of this test will help ESA set criteria to choose astronauts for a real trip to space

Are you claustrophobic? Don’t apply! With the current technology it would take about nine months just to get to Mars. Then astronauts would spend three months on the surface, followed by the nine-month return trip. One problem? Food! Apparently, a two-year supply of food would take up way too much space in space (!), so … the astronauts will have to GROW their own food. Russian space officials have completed experiments breeding quail and growing wheat in “space-like” conditions, but they’ll have to come up with a lot more than that to survive.

Also there are some pretty serious health considerations … such as high levels of radiation exposure and atrophying muscles and bones. Because your muscles have to work much, much less in a weightless environment, they become weakened and begin to deteriorate … this is particularly worrisome because remember … your heart is a muscle, too!

Guess what ladies? History might just repeat itself. According to the BBC news, the Russians have said women probably won’t be allowed. Anatoly Grigoryev, Director of the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems for the Russian space program, said that a same-sex crew is likely to be more "serene" with a “lower probability of conflicts.”

But the real reason could actually be a little more complex. Tune in tomorrow to find out where the NASA folk come out on the issue of astronauts having sex in space … I’m Kate Bohner for KBTVonline. Thanks for joining!

Question: Will you tune in tomorrow?

posted by rjoyner @ 8:40 PM