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A brief history of people losing their minds in Antarctica

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Re: A brief history of people losing their minds in Antarctica

#41

Post by davedx »

permo-w wrote: post #36
TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even the Moon. ISS visitors are selected very, very carefully to minimise these risks. But as soon as you get a slightly larger colony further from Earth, mental health is going to become a problem. Which is why Mars is a tougher project than it seems. The ferry part is relatively easy compared to the incredibly difficult challenge of building a self-sustaining stable ecosystem that can survive on a manageably small…

I think the one of the main problems, lack of sunlight, shouldn’t be a huge issue on mars. Nutrition and a sufficiently large social, group on the other hand, may be a problem

Mars has significantly less sunlight (in terms of irradiance) than Earth

Re: A brief history of people losing their minds in Antarctica

#42

Post by davedx »

plugger wrote: post #32
katmannthree wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not just mental health, but physical as well. Humans are not well suited for long term high G environments, while I have every expectation that we will someday make it to other planetary systems I doubt the meatbags will be coming along.

It's the solar radiation, not high G's, that is the main problem with colonising Mars given Mars doesn't have a functional magnetosphere. At best Martian colonists will be the modern day equivalent of Morlocks if they want to have a sustainable colony on mars.

Not if you design the habitation appropriately. Something like a 1m layer of water in the roof and thick glass windows would provide pretty decent protection.

Sleeping underground would be a good idea though.

Re: A brief history of people losing their minds in Antarctica

#43

Post by hutzlibu »

est31 wrote: post #37
hutzlibu wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think he means transhumanism. Genetically adopted humans/cyborgs, that can survive the radiation etc. Scie-Fi for sure.

It's not sci fi. Hominids have evolved radiation adaptations here on earth already through natural selection alone: dark skin. > The evolution of dark skin is believed to have begun around 1.2 million years ago,[9] in light-skinned early hominid species after they moved from the equatorial rainforest to the sunny savannas. In the heat of the savannas, better cooling mechanisms were required, which were achieved throu…

No doubt about that - but I don't think anyone would want to have natural evolution with natural selection as the primary way to achieve humans can live on mars. Because that would not be pleasant.

And genetic engeneering has come a long way, but modifying humans genetically for improved radiation protection is sci-fi at the moment. Maybe it comes already in a couple of years, but currently it is not remotely there - so sci fi.

Re: A brief history of people losing their minds in Antarctica

#44

Post by danuker »

hellbannedguy wrote: post #39

I have thought for awhile that the best space voyagers, or guys whom are going to be isolated, are individuals who already had minor breakdowns when they were younger. That includes so many of us? Why? Because they know the crazy thoughts will pass. I'm not talking about individuals with serious mental illness like Schizophrenia, or have a genetic lineage of mental illness. I'm talking people that have survived mild…

> Why? Because they know the crazy thoughts will pass.

I am not a psychologist nor anything similar, but wouldn't people who have gone through the same conditions without having the crazy thoughts in the first place be better suited for the job?

Re: A brief history of people losing their minds in Antarctica

#45

Post by haar »

danuker wrote: post #44
hellbannedguy wrote: post #39

I have thought for awhile that the best space voyagers, or guys whom are going to be isolated, are individuals who already had minor breakdowns when they were younger. That includes so many of us? Why? Because they know the crazy thoughts will pass. I'm not talking about individuals with serious mental illness like Schizophrenia, or have a genetic lineage of mental illness. I'm talking people that have survived mild…

> Why? Because they know the crazy thoughts will pass. I am not a psychologist nor anything similar, but wouldn't people who have gone through the same conditions without having the crazy thoughts in the first place be better suited for the job?

Two schools of thought?

- Those that really try hard to make sure the computer cannot crash.

- Those that see the computer crashing as an inevitability, and want to ensure the appropriate behaviours are in place when it does happen.

Re: A brief history of people losing their minds in Antarctica

#46

Post by mkl »

permo-w wrote: post #36
TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even the Moon. ISS visitors are selected very, very carefully to minimise these risks. But as soon as you get a slightly larger colony further from Earth, mental health is going to become a problem. Which is why Mars is a tougher project than it seems. The ferry part is relatively easy compared to the incredibly difficult challenge of building a self-sustaining stable ecosystem that can survive on a manageably small…

I think the one of the main problems, lack of sunlight, shouldn’t be a huge issue on mars. Nutrition and a sufficiently large social, group on the other hand, may be a problem

> lack of sunlight, shouldn’t be a huge issue on mars.

Mars only gets 43% as much sunlight as Earth (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars). On top of that, Mars's lack of a magnetic field like Earth's makes cosmic radiation there worse to the point that colonies will likely be underground, or behind heavy shielding aboveground: https://phys.org/news/2016-11-bad-mars.html

Re: A brief history of people losing their minds in Antarctica

#47

Post by sampo »

In 1893, Fridtjof Nansen took a ship with a 12 men crew to North of East Siberia, purposefully sailed the ship to get stuck in sea ice, and hoped that the ice movement with ocean currents would take them to the North Pole. The ship spent 3 years stuck in ice, but didn't quite flow over the North Pole. These people didn't go mad.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nansen%27s_Fram_expedition

Re: A brief history of people losing their minds in Antarctica

#49

Post by animal531 »

davedx wrote: post #41
permo-w wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the one of the main problems, lack of sunlight, shouldn’t be a huge issue on mars. Nutrition and a sufficiently large social, group on the other hand, may be a problem

Mars has significantly less sunlight (in terms of irradiance) than Earth

True, but a day on Mars is pretty much the same length as on Earth, which is great for the human cycle. Googling says that lux 100k on Earth would be roughly 44k on Mars, so a lot dimmer, but still better than months of darkness on end.

Now the real question is whether colonists can/will live on the surface? But then a secondary addition, due to modern technology we now have much better lighting that can approximate natural lighting, even underground.

Re: A brief history of people losing their minds in Antarctica

#50

Post by naoru »

permo-w wrote: post #34

First >A current theory among social scientists suggests that pibloktoq [a temporary madness found in Inuhuit peoples] was not a congenital malady peculiar to the Inuhuit but rather a severe stress reaction arising from early contact with Western outsiders. Could someone explain this theory to me? secondly, I sincerely doubt that the early expeditions had anything remotely resembling adequate nutrition, besides enoug…

> a very restricted diet combined with not seeing the sun for 6 months

That's not an expedition. That's Russia.

Now you know why majority of Russians are terminally funny in the head.

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