But, as others have commented on various sites, of course people can live and work in these conditions. It is no different than a submarine, and during WW2 soldiers were on deployment for months at end.
Of course, they surfaced quite often and had some sun/air/ocean view, but it's not that far from being inside a capsule in space.
Now if we could launch a submarine into space somehow, our problems would be solved :-)...
In the latter scenario you're a hero on a mission to extend the reach of humanity into space -- in the former you're just some dude in a petri dish.
Nuclear subs stay down for months at a time, no problem.
The only hazard in this experiment is that there was no real sense of risk, which likely would affect the results tremendously. If they could have simulated loss of life somehow, that might give a more realistic view of how the confinement, and the isolation would have affected the astronauts.
Nonetheless, a great experiment!
(I'm actually pretty sure I read about plans to do this around 2018 in orbit, but I can't find the article now. Anyone?)
> Polyakov's mood stabilized to pre-flight levels between the second and fourteenth month of his mission.
So I really don't see a point of a test of this length, if mood stabilizes to pre-flight levels during the second month then there's no point of a test beyond two-months in duration if this holds true for multiple people. Given the number of astronauts and cosmonauts that have been on prolonged missions the data should be readily available to crunch.
Why bother isolating people for 520 days when you can crunch the data of hundreds of people isolated for months to gather the same data. It's a complete waste of money that could have been spent on real research.
33 men survived 69 days trapped in a mine after a collapse. Big groups have bigger risks of social cohesion failing. I think it speaks when 33 men not trained for the situation got through it fine.
Top that in risk, stress, quantity of participants and isolation. It was 16 days before they knew anybody was even looking to rescue them. Top that one for stress.
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/The_Light_Bri...
Stuff (music, art, films, books, whatever) that isn't very good can yet have a major impact on a person (usually a young person) if it presents, however badly, some idea they find compelling, but haven't seen portrayed before, so have nothing to compare the particular execution with.
http://www.astronautix.com/articles/aststics.htm
However, I believe crew rotations and resupplies were taking place during these missions, and there was no communications lag.
Perhaps a way to do it and remove the ability to leave would be to send them to the International Space Station for an extended period ... (still cheaper than a trip to Mars!)
The trade-off, I guess, is that the simulation becomes more real when one incorporates the very real dangers of space.
Things are different when communications are real-time, resupply ships show up frequently, and other crew members are rotating in and out regularly.
I wonder if anyone has written an essay of the significance of wood as a medium of value in science fiction. I first noticed it with the burl in Niven's the _Integral_Trees_, but it also shows up in Cherryh and lots of other authors.
Another example: in Richard K. Morgan's Altered Carbon, "mirrorwood" from Harlan's World is prized on Earth, but used as a common building materia on its homeworld.
Let me know if you find that essay!
I would never spend 520 days of my life stuck in a make-believe space ship. rofl.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spaceflight_records#Ten...