NASA is taking applications for four people to live in an artificial Martian habitat for a year. While there, they will conduct spacewalks, have limited communication with home and exist with restricted food and resources. Oh, there will be occasional equipment failures.
Kind of like that period when your toilet paper supply was running low, you walked around the block once a day and you couldn't figure out how to do a video call with family. Except you'll get paid. By NASA.
NASA seeking people for the fall 2022 mission that will be followed by two others – each lasting a year. Three tries.
The initial announcement said NASA is looking for "healthy, motivated U.S. citizens or permanent residents who are non-smokers, age 30 to 55 years old, and proficient in English for effective communication between crew and mission control." The selection of the crew will follow standard NASA criteria for astronauts, which is to say most of us don't qualify.
Candidates are required to have a master’s degree in a STEM field such as engineering, mathematics, or biological, physical or computer science from an accredited institution with at least two years of professional STEM experience or a minimum of one thousand hours piloting an aircraft.
However, that's not rigid. NASA says it may also consider candidates who have completed two years of work toward a doctoral program in STEM, or completed a medical degree, or a test pilot program. (Still, almost none of us qualify). The announcement also said NASA will consider candidates with four years of professional experience, applicants who have completed military officer training or a bachelor's of science degree in a STEM field. One more step down and many of us might qualify.
The four "winners" will live in a house-sized habitat in Houston that is created by a 3-D printer. It's called Mars Dune Alpha and takes up 1,700 square feet in the Johnson Space Center.
Let's step back a moment and consider what's being sought. Those who get the gig will:
- Live with three other people for a year in a 1,700-square-foot space.
- Have limited communications with outsiders.
- Have limited food and resources.
Forget that "qualification" stuff. You're qualified for this! So am I!
This job sound like the past 18 months.
Sure, they want people to do scientific experiments to simulate what will happen on Mars, but didn't we show that we were qualified when we were creating handmade masks and finding replacements for toilet paper? Will NASA acknowledge our experience from we were having to figure out how to keep our kids learning while not going crazy? Do we get credit for our COVID gardens or our "creative projects" we started during the lockdowns?
NASA is still our best and brightest. NASA sent 24 men to the moon and returned them safely. NASA dreams big.
Mars is worth exploring and I'm on board with having people simulate living on Mars in isolation with very little communication with their friends and family.
We could do this! However, I'm not very interested in doing it and I suspect most of us aren't.
For one thing, most of us don't qualify under NASA's exacting standards.
But the main reason we're not interested is that spending a year in isolation, trying to navigate a dangerous new world where things are difficult, unprecedented and potentially lethal doesn't sound like fun.
It sounds like 2020.
Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@outlook.com.
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