Some people will do anything to avoid the new administration
The Short Version
Six people entered a dome on top of the most active volcano in Hawaii and won’t come out for eight months as part of a NASA-sponsored study of the effects of living in an environment similar to that found on the planet Mars. Scientists are hoping that the results of this study will help them to prepare for eventually putting people on the red planet sometime in the 2030s. One of the “perks” to being in the dome is complete isolation from news media.
A Few More Details
While many of us might like to escape today’s inauguration of the new president, six people found a very extreme way of doing so by volunteering for an eight-month study that places them in a dome that sits on top of the most active volcano in Hawaii. That sounds like fun, doesn’t it?
Actually, this isn’t a political statement but rather a scientific study. That the study started yesterday is purely coincidental. This was planned long before the election. No one really looked at the calendar.
The study, which is sponsored largely by NASA, is designed to take a look at what might happen, physically and psychologically, to people confined in an atmosphere similar to what would be found on the planet Mars. Of course, there’s a lot of difference between Earth and Mars, especially in regards to gravity. Being on top of an active volcano is about as close as scientists could come to replicating the martian environment. Anyone who has ever been on top of a volcano understands just how unfriendly and unforgiving the terrain can be.
The six people who entered the dome, four men and two women, won’t have a lot of space and won’t have much in the way of food choice. Their diets will consist mostly of dried food with the occasional treat of —wait for it—Spam. Sounds thrilling, doesn’t it? I’m anticipating some dramatic weight loss on the part of the participants. Yet, it is still likely better than the environment in Washington, D.C. at the moment.
The University of Hawaii operates the dome, called Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation, or HI-SEAS, and NASA has dedicated more than $2 million to this stage of the project. There are other martian simulations being operated in different places in the world, but this one is special because the terrain so closely resembles what Mars would actually offer. This allows scientists to study not only how the crew interacts inside the dome, but how well they perform simple activities such as using a robot to fetch packages left for them.
Now, don’t go getting the idea that this is all fun and games. The dome has a small kitchen, a lab, and very small sleeping accommodations, such as what might be found in a martian space station. The dome is not airtight, but when members of the crew go outside, they have to wear space suits to simulate the limited movement. They will have no physical contact with the outside world. Even their limited digital communication with the support crew has a 20-minute delay, the amount of time it would take an email message from Mars to reach Earth. On a good day.
And what happens if the volcano decides to get nasty while they’re there? There are extraction plans in place, NASA says. However, there’s no word as to whether those plans include Matt Damon.
Haven’t We Done Domes Before?
Yes, we’ve stuck people in numerous domes before. There have been two previous studies for Mars deployment, one lasting a year and the other eight months. And there will likely be more studies after this as researchers attempt to improve the experience based on what they’ve learned from previous studies.
What they’re hoping to avoid is the complete meltdown that occurred back in the 90s with Biodome 2, an experiment in Arizona that went totally out of control. That dome was air tight and attempted to replicate multiple environments. Carbon dioxide levels were out of control, plants and animals were dying, and the participants were at the point of not even speaking with each other by the time they left the dome.
Of course, even that failure taught us a lot of lessons that factor into this current study. Everyone is hopeful that the test will go well and that participants won’t have too much culture shock when they emerge in eight months.
Had we known the election was going to end like this, a lot more people would have likely volunteered, don’t you think?
Morning Update: 08/10/24
Here it is 7:30 AM, I’m just sitting down to write, and there’s no other sound in the house. Kat and both kids are still asleep. Animals are all asleep except for Belvedere lying here on the bed watching me, wondering when he’s going to get breakfast. This is the tone set for the weekend. I think Tipper may have tentative plans with a friend but I’m not sure. She came in from school and crashed hard. G is, unsurprisingly, planning on getting some schoolwork done. He’s still a bit upset at how long it took them to get started. Kat will go to the salon and then head North for the weekend. I’m just here in case of an emergency.
It’s a chilly 57 degrees outside at the moment. Skies are clear. Not much different than 2:00 AM when the dogs decided they needed to go out. That’s really my own fault. Normally, I take the dogs out for the last time around 8-8:30 in the evening. That typically gets them through until 6:00 the next morning. I fell asleep shortly after 7:00 last night, though, which didn’t give them a chance to go out that last time. Thus, come 2:00, someone was needing to go pee quite badly. I slipped on my shoes and took them out only to be surprised by how cool it was. I’ll have a jacket on when I take them out again this morning.
Weekends like this are for reading and there’s plenty to read. Of course, dominating headlines this morning is the crash of an ATR 72 twin-engine turboprop in Sao Paulo, Brazil. This is a story you’ll want to come back to off and on over the weekend as more details become known. All that’s certain at the moment is that the plane went into a flat spin before crashing inside a gated community, killing the 61 souls on board.
We’re also just finding out that a Serbian competitor in the CrossFit Games died while competing in a swimming event Thursday morning at a Texas lake. Again, details are sketchy. An official with the Fort Worth Fire Department said they were called out around 8 a.m. to assist police because there was “a participant in the water that was down and hadn’t been seen in some point in time.” No cause of death has been given and CrossFit isn’t answering any questions.
Boxer Imane Khelif won gold to cap an Olympics marked by scrutiny over her sex. After all the ridiculous fuss, it only seems fitting that she should walk away with the top prize. Sha’carri Richardson was able to finally capture her first gold as the anchor in the women’s 4×100 relay. But 60-year-old swimmer Jim Dreyer apparently gave up after two days trying to cross Lake Michigan. Actually, no one’s sure exactly what happened. Dreyer isn’t responding to questions and the U.S. Coast Guard confirmed he’s no longer in the water.
Making Mars inhabitable seems to be a big issue this morning. The easy-to-digest version is on Reuters’ home page, but the more scientific version is in this week’s Science magazine. What it all boils down to is the possibility that soil samples from the planet can possibly be used to make rods that would warm the planet enough for it to terraform itself. Don’t hold your breath, though, Elon. Even in the best possible conditions, we’re still decades away from even thinking about putting people up there.
There’s an interesting feature in this morning’s New York Times that has cool graphics to go with it if you read it online. It seems that China has been building new villages and relocating people to live all along its Western border, including some disputed territories with India. This is interesting for a number of reasons. One, it feels an awful lot like it did when Israel first did the same thing along its West Bank border, and we see how disastrously that plan worked. Two, the previously uninhabited regions were uninhabited for a damn good reason. Villages in the Himalayas are subject to severe winters with roads impassible several months of the year. Other areas are too rocky for any type of agriculture to take place. China is digging in, though, saying that the towns are critical to the country’s defense. The article is worth the read.
Everything else this morning is war and politics and I’m not inclined to give any more oxygen to those situations when those who could do something constructive sit on their hands or make the situation worse.
I’m crossing my fingers for a nice, quiet weekend. We’ll see if that’s possible.
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