Mars500 Crew Became Lazy And Sleepy During Moscow-Based Fake Space Mission; scientific findings rele - Polidicks

[quote]For a while there, life in a bunker designed to simulate a 520-day mission to Mars looked kind of fun. The “cosmonauts” had video games, fake fireplaces to simulate a Christmasy scene, and an unbelievable sense of patience as they sat through a false journey to the Red Planet and back. But it turns out it was really just incredibly boring. And the word sat is key, because that’s about all they did. Space biomedical scientists are publishing the first crop of research papers to stem from the Mars500 mission, which involved the voluntary sequestration of three Russians, a Chinese man, a Frenchman and an Italian-Colombian man inside a small metal bunker. The 17-month mission, unprecedented on Earth or in space, was designed to measure how humans would react to long-term exposure to enclosed spaces and disturbed circadian rhythms, among other problems. One major health problem turned out to be hypokinesis, or uber-sedentariness. Sedentariness increased across the whole mission, with a dramatic drop in activity during the first three months. So-called “active wakefulness” continued to drop for the following 13 months. In the last 20 mission days, the crew’s awake time and activity time rose sharply, and their sleep and rest times decreased sharply. There was no extra work to do, however--the crew just became less sedentary on their own. They knew they were about to finally get out. The crewmembers had trouble sleeping at first, but in the second half of the mission, they got plenty of rest--673 hours more sleep in the second half of the mission relative to the ﬁrst, the study says. Still, this was fitful sleep, according to their own reports and wrist-monitor evidence. This may have had to do with their loss of circadian rhythms, according to the study’s authors. This is interesting for future space travelers, because it suggests that even when people can control their light exposure and physical activity, there’s just something about the Earth’s day-night rhythms that we can’t replicate. What’s most interesting about this study is the parallel the authors draw between the crewmembers’ sedentary behavior and that of torpor--or hibernation. Metabolic activity decreases when animals hibernate during winter, and something a lot like that was going on here. A pretty active area of sleep research continues to show that artificial lighting, along with conflicting schedules for work, school and even television, contribute to sleep problems and associated metabolic changes. These in turn can contribute to obesity, the authors point out. “The essential need for humans to maintain sleep–wake activity cycles synchronized to the circadian biology that temporally coordinates human health and behavior appears to be as important on Earth as it will be en route to Mars,” they write. The study is published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.[/quote] Source: [url]http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-01/mars500-crew-became-lazy-and-sleepy-during-moscow-based-fake-mars-mission[/url]

This reminds me of the Mythbusters Alaska special, it sounds like cabin fever. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSwtYVMg17Y[/media]

So, in other words, they Hibernated. [editline]7th January 2013[/editline] Sort of. [editline]7th January 2013[/editline] Holy hell, I got an Auto merge in? can I get two? [b]Edit:[/b] Man I need to finish reading the whole article before I post...

They should send gamers to Mars. They won't even feel the journey, as long as they have a LAN connection.

[QUOTE=Stopper;39138518]They should send gamers to Mars. They won't even feel the journey, as long as they have a LAN connection.[/QUOTE] That'll be one long LAN party

[QUOTE]a Chinese man, a Frenchman and an Italien-Colombian man inside a small metal bunker. [/QUOTE] Sounds like the begining to some sort of joke

Imagine how many full games of Monopoly you can complete in that time...

[QUOTE=CabooseRvB;39139238]Imagine how many full games of Monopoly you can complete in that time...[/QUOTE] I refuse to sell.

[QUOTE=CabooseRvB;39139238]Imagine how many full games of Monopoly you can complete in that time...[/QUOTE] One?

[QUOTE=Del91;39138485]So, in other words, they Hibernated. [editline]7th January 2013[/editline] Sort of.[/QUOTE] No, they slept. Hibernating is a completely different thing and humans don't hibernate.

[QUOTE=Van-man;39138599]That'll be one long LAN party[/QUOTE] A 520 day LAN party in space? Oh man.

Wouldn't real astronauts be, y'know, doing science and shit during such a voyage? It's not like the astronauts in the ISS sit up there playing with their dicks all day; they run a whole host of different experiments around the clock in microgravity. I'd imagine real astronauts going on this journey would have their time consumed by similar activities so might not be as prone to this kind of thing.

[QUOTE=CabooseRvB;39139238]Imagine how many full games of Monopoly you can complete in that time...[/QUOTE] I have never met anyone who has finished a game of monopoly.

[QUOTE=RosettaStoned;39140638]A 520 day LAN party in space? Oh man.[/QUOTE] Imagine the Minecraft world you'd have build by the end of it.

They didn't murder each other. A 100% success.

[QUOTE=jamzzster;39139162]Sounds like the begining to some sort of joke[/QUOTE] the punchline is "anal baguette"

[QUOTE=sltungle;39140703]Wouldn't real astronauts be, y'know, doing science and shit during such a voyage? It's not like the astronauts in the ISS sit up there playing with their dicks all day; they run a whole host of different experiments around the clock in microgravity. I'd imagine real astronauts going on this journey would have their time consumed by similar activities so might not be as prone to this kind of thing.[/QUOTE] Not necessarily. The science they will do will happen on mars itself, the journey there and back again will have to be filled with placeholders. Weight is the key to everything on such a mission, if you packed it full of experiments to do within those almost 3 years of travel, the spacecraft would be way too heavy and consume a lot of fuel.

[QUOTE=DrLuckyLuke;39141033]Not necessarily. The science they will do will happen on mars itself, the journey there and back again will have to be filled with placeholders. Weight is the key to everything on such a mission, if you packed it full of experiments to do within those almost 3 years of travel, the spacecraft would be way too heavy and consume a lot of fuel.[/QUOTE] Three years? Its 520 days. Virtually all plans for a trip to Mars make it pretty clear that, whoever goes there will not be coming back alive. That they'll spend their last days on the surface. Which would be an admittedly cool way to go out.

They should pack with them some psychdelic drugs and some pink floyd to keep them entertained

[QUOTE=Red scout?;39141221]They should pack with them some psychdelic drugs and some pink floyd to keep them entertained[/QUOTE]I can just imagine all of them jumping out of the craft early during the trip while listening to "Learning to Fly".

[QUOTE=Stopper;39138518]They should send gamers to Mars. They won't even feel the journey, as long as they have a LAN connection.[/QUOTE] They should send like programmers or an entire game developement team.

[QUOTE=Stopper;39138518]They should send gamers to Mars. They won't even feel the journey, as long as they have a LAN connection.[/QUOTE] It's all fun and games until halfway to mars you find out player #4 is a sore loser at risk... and he holds grudges. Murder mystery... [I]in space![/I]

I gotta agree with whoever suggested videogames. There's few better ways to kill time in a secluded environment.

[QUOTE=Red scout?;39141221]They should pack with them some psychdelic drugs and some pink floyd to keep them entertained[/QUOTE] Dude, just no. It would stretch time even longer thus inducing "stuck here forever" though and some serious bad trip can occur then :D

imagine that whole time, probably not being able to fap even once

[QUOTE=WingedAssailant;39142048]imagine that whole time, probably not being able to fap even once[/QUOTE] And thus the first Martian orgy happened.

[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;39142224]And thus the first Martian orgy happened.[/QUOTE]"We come in peace" takes on a whole new meaning.

did they even get to do their laundry