A recent Sunday paper noted that NASA is funding an eight-month ordeal--uh, experiment--that locks up six volunteers in a dome for eight months. The idea is to study how humans respond to cramped conditions. It's all part of the preparation for a planned trip to Mars.
The volunteers will have no physical contact with any other humans for the duration. They'll eat freeze-dried foods and Spam. All communications, including email, will have a 20-minute delay, to simulate the time it takes to talk to somebody on the next planet over.
"I'm looking forward to building relationships with my crew," said mission commander James Bevington. "I fully anticipate coming out with five new best friends."
Uh, yeah.
NASA is hoping to improve on the Biosphere 2 disaster in the 1990s when that crew squabbled so badly that, once they were let out, wouldn't speak to each other.
Or think of it this way: Remember during the last ice storm when your kids were stuck together in the same house for three days? With plenty of cereal, milk and home-cooked spaghetti? And their texts to their friends didn't take 20 minutes to go back and forth either.
In any case, we wish the latest Domers well. We hope they have a lot of luck. And a couple of packs of playing cards.
Editorial on 02/19/2017