If I wasn’t so damn claustrophobic (and American) I’d totally do this:
The European Space Agency (ESA) on Tuesday called for applications for one of the most demanding human experiments in space history: a simulated trip to Mars in which six “astronauts” will spend 17 months in an isolation tank on Earth.
Their spaceship will comprise a series of interlocked modules in an research institute in Moscow, and once the doors are closed tight, the volunteers will be cut off from all contact with the outside world except by a delayed radio link.
They will face simulated emergencies, daily work routines and experiments, as well as boredom and, no doubt, personal friction from confinement in just 550 cubic metres (19,250 cubic feet), the equivalent of nine truck containers.
I love the part where they talk about how you’d “only” get paid $158 per day. Gosh, that’s “only” more than $76,000 at the end of the experiment. Not bad for simply surviving while remaining non-homicidal.
Course, since I got twitchy and nervous just reading about it, I’m right out. My claustrophobia’s gotten worse as I’ve gotten older. It used to be just very large crowds (IKEA does not get visited except at 7 p.m. on Tuesdays) and very VERY tight spaces that would set me off, but I’m now at the point where elevators make me jittery. It’s not so much the actual size of the space enclosed, it’s the loss of control that comes from the sense of being trapped. All of which intellectually I know, but emotionally, I just want to chew my way right through the side of the box and get out.
So no space trial-run for me.
A.