DodoFinance Breaking News Made For You!
Want to find Matt Damon in you and pretend you’re isolated on Mars for a year? NASA has a job for you.
To prepare for potentially sending astronauts to Mars, NASA on Friday began asking four people to live in Mars Dune Alpha for a year. It’s a 1,700 square foot habitat on Mars, created with a 3D printer and in a building at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The volunteers hired will work on a simulation mission to explore Mars, with spacewalks, limited home communications, limited food and resources, and equipment failures.
NASA is planning three such experiments, the first of which will begin in the fall of next year. The food will be all ready to go and no ramen is planned at this time. Some plants will be planted, but not the potatoes as in the movie “The Martian”. Damon played stranded astronaut Mark Watney, who survived a potato.
“We want to understand how people work there,” said lead scientist Grace Douglas. “We are looking at real world situations for Mars.”
The application process opened on Friday and they’re not just looking for someone. Requirements are strict, including a master’s degree in a field of science, engineering, math, or experimental experience. Only U.S. citizens or permanent residents of the United States are eligible. Applicants must be between the ages of 30 and 55, be in good physical health, have no nutritional problems and not suffer from motion sickness.
Former Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield said this shows NASA is looking for people close to the astronauts. And he said. This is a good thing, because it is a better experience if the participants are more like the people who actually go to Mars. He said previous Russian efforts on a hypothetical mission to Mars called Mars 500 did not end well, in part because humans looked a lot like normal humans.
For the right person, that could be great, said Hadfield, who spent five months orbiting the International Space Station in 2013, playing guitar and singing a video on the cover of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity”.
“Just think about how much you can catch up with Netflix,” he said. “If they have an instrument there, you can go there without knowing anything and buy a musical instrument, if you want.” “
There can be “incredible freedom” in a “year without the demands of your normal life”.
Hadfield, who released the novel “The Apollo Murders” in the fall, said attitude is key. He said candidates should look like Damon Watney’s character: “He’s super knowledgeable, resourceful and doesn’t rely on other people to feel comfortable.”
