FLUG REVUE July 2004: Mars plans

MARS FLIGHTS WITHOUT WOMEN?

By Horst Hoffmann/MG

Experts reckon that a manned Mars mission is feasible in the next 20 years. Optimists believe this could be achieved as early as 2019, which would be the fiftieth anniversary of the first landing of humans on the moon. The critics on the other hand are adamant in questioning the purpose and benefits of an expedition to the Red Planet with humans on board. The reply to this is surprisingly simple and Mars colony

also logical: technology has never yet been able to work miracles, yet humans do this every day, in both a positive and negative sense.

The question remains: what purpose would such a mission serve? In view of the huge expense, one is perfectly justified in questioning the purpose of extraterrestrial travel. What can Mars tell us? Even if it is just curiosity that is the driving force, this inhospitable planet, with icy temperatures that average -53ºC and prolonged sandstorms, could tell us a lot about our mother planet. How did our solar system develop? Did organic life exist on Mars before evolution even got under way on the earth? If so, were the inclusions in the meteorites originating from Mars that collided with earth exported examples of Martian life? Was the process of evolution on the earth set in motion by an import from Mars? Could WE ourselves be of Martian origin?

Today we know more about our neighbour than ever before, yet we are still painfully ignorant about it. The reason for this sad state of affairs is the failure of past unmanned missions bound for Mars. Since 1960 over thirty unmanned spaceships have set off for the planet named after the god of war. Incredibly, 17 of these failed totally, four of them can be classified as partial successes with a wild stretch of the imagination, and only nine missions have fulfilled the expectations vested in them. NASA's successes, such as the Mariner, Viking and Mars Pathfinder missions, have compensated for the failures with a rich flood of data and colour images of the planet surface.

EVERY LAUNCH WINDOW IS AN OPPORTUNITY

Mars orbits the sun on a pronouncedly elliptical trajectory. This means that its distance from our own planet varies between 56.8 and 399.4 million kilometres. Whenever Mars is relatively close, Mars scientists from around the globe get excited, as this “launch window” would permit us to travel to our furthest neighbour in the shortest possible time. In other words, these are the best opportunities for launching planetary probes or a manned expedition.

The present thinking assumes that the undertaking will take about a thousand days. Nobody doubts that astronauts are highly motivated men and women with a professional attitude who have been psychologically and physically prepared for the ultimate achievement during a space flight. But the travel conditions that would be encountered over the journey to Mars raise a huge number of obstacles for which humans simply are not designed.

The huge distance which would have to be covered is linked with the overwhelming feeling of being cut off irrevocably, albeit temporarily, from one's mother planet. Communication with earth will be significantly impeded by the long time it takes, approximately eight minutes, for radio signals to return. The space travellers would be largely self-reliant. A return journey from Mars would only be feasible when the planetary constellation was favourable. This means that the crew would have to cope with situations that have never yet occurred on manned space missions. Conditions on board the Mars spaceship will be similar to those on the first stations to have orbited the earth: confined, spartan, no privacy.

It is not at all clear what form the crew should take. Should it be five or six people, should half of them be men and half women, should the crew be made up of married astronaut couples or singles or be composed of a single sex? Previous thoughts on this issue may be taking shape, but there is as yet no final recommendation.

The only thing virtual certainty at present is that the journey to this, the most masculine of all the planets, ruled by the god of war, Mars, will include at least one woman. NASA's view is that Mars astronauts will be a different category of space traveller from previous cosmonauts.

“DIFFICULT” PEOPLE RULED OUT

Any astronaut who was not able to solve problems in a communicative and sensitive way would be unacceptable on a three-year mission. What is needed is sensitive technical people who can foresee interpersonal conflicts and prevent them from escalating. Communication skills, conflict management, sensitivity and empathy – these are without a doubt areas in which the gentler sex excels. Perhaps a team composed entirely of women would make the most suitable Mars crew. The French astronaut Claudie Haigneré is surprisingly down-to-earth in her perception of the role of women in space:

“The body of evidence suggests that mixed crews work the most effectively – in the organisation of their work, in decision-making, in conflict resolution and in communicating with the mission control centre. Of course men and women are different, but they complement one another. We simply have to let them live together and work in their own way, without forcing them to behave in exactly the same way. The exploration of other planets will be a major step forwards for the entire human race. And the human race has two sexes.”

If we are correct in interpreting NASA's utterances on the subject, then it is easy to draw the conclusion that they would prefer not to debate the problems of mixed crews and certainly not in public. Even if it is occasionally conceded that a mixed crew would be “healthier”, in the very next sentence the objection is raised that such crews would cause their own psychological problems – in other words, they are beating about the bush in a way that is typical of a country that purports to be prim and proper.

Moreover, it is common knowledge that the capability of human bones to regenerate in zero gravity declines ten times more quickly than on the earth. The skeleton becomes porous, unstable and is inclined to fracture at the slightest loading. A cough is sufficient to fracture a rib, while the spinal vertebrae can collapse in on themselves spontaneously.

In this area women are exposed to a higher risk due to their genetic disposition and their generally lighter and less dense bones. This bone degeneration, osteoporosis, also occurs on the earth, but only in people aged 45 and over. The one good thing about astronauts is that this degeneration of the bones is more or less reversible with training and appropriate diet. Up to now, the longest that anyone has lived in zero gravity is little over one year. What form will the process of bone loss take after three years, especially as in the final stages of the disease the teeth can fall out? It is assumed, as on earth, that the loss of one's teeth would be irreversible on Mars.

Women may be better equipped from the psychological point of view, but physiologically they are at a disadvantage. So what should we do? Leave the women behind and turn the men into monks or neurotics? Leave the men behind and expect the women to apply for a new set of teeth from the health insurers on their return?

Many obstacles still remain. Even if the problem of bone loss during a flight to Mars can be resolved, the psychological barriers have not nearly been eliminated. People may already be eager to know what sex and personality will represent the human race as the successors of the Apollo astronauts take their first step on Mars.

But Mars research has taught us one thing already: the journey to our red neighbour will be arduous and full of trials, tribulations and setbacks for us humans. Johannes Kepler was the first scientist to calculate the orbit of the planet around the sun. In the euphoria of his discovery, he predicted that it would take only eight days to work out Mars's trajectory. That was in 1600, but in the event it took him over eight years to gather sufficient observation data to finally work out the extremely elliptical orbit of Mars in 1609. It will take even longer than this before first visitors to Mars are able to set off on their journey.

From page 74 of FLUG REVUE 7/2004

Last updated 11 June 2004

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