Living on the planet Mars will be like life in prison, warns an expert. “Little personal space, overcrowding, bad food, unnecessary risks”

Experts warn that when people finally set up on Mars, they will walk into one of the most hostile in the Solar System.

ROVER PHOTO CNSA

If we want to understand how life will really be on the red planet, we should look at a hostile environment much closer to home.

The life of the astronauts in a Martian colony will be extremely similar to the conditions in the current prisons, according to a top space researcher.

From isolation and lack of personal space to bad food and a rigid routine, the conditions of the astronauts will be much closer to those of the prisoners than to those of the explorers, writes the Daily Mail.

Space agencies spent decades studying extreme environments like Antarctica research bases to find out how people could react to life.

However, Professor Lucy Beryoud, a spatial systems engineer at the University of Bristol, says that prisons are already the closest parallel to the life of Mars.

Professor Berthoud told Mailonline that both prisoners and astronauts are facing: “Too little personal space and privacy, overcrowding, bad food, unnecessary risks, rigid regimes without autonomy, few variations in daily activities.”

Given that astronauts are caught at 225 million km, Professor Berthoud warns that they may feel even more isolated than those closed in cells here.

Freedom as a punishment

The biggest difference between astronauts and prisoners is obviously the fact that one voluntarily assumes a highly sought after position, while the other is taken as a punishment.

However, once astronauts reach a Martian colony, their conditions will be extremely similar.

Obviously, both prisoners and astronauts will be physically caught in a narrow and dangerous environment, with the same small group of people.

In prisons, the European standard for a cell is four square meters per person, but overcrowding means that space is often much smaller.

In a Martian colony where resources are limited and survival is the main goal, astronauts will probably face as tight spaces.

For example, the NASA’s Apollo command and service module, which took astronauts to the monthly orbit, had only 6.2 cubic meters of space for three astronauts.

This lack of intimacy, combined with approaching other people, can lead to an increase in stress and a much higher risk of conflict. These tensions are aggravated only by the fact that both prisons and Mars are extremely dangerous.

Although the sources of danger are extremely different, this persistent level of threat has the same effect on a person’s psychology.

Professor Berthoud said: “Living in a high risk environment, the threatening situation would mean that you are permanently activated, which affects you psychologically and physically in the long term. Astronauts are selected especially to be able to cope with emergency situations, as opposed to prisoners, but during the mission this would still have an effect. “

In addition to living conditions, astronauts and prisoners can wake up with a similar lifestyle.

In prisons, the program of incarcerated is planned at the minute, with restrictions on anything, from food and sleep to work and rest.

This is exactly the same situation faced by astronauts who are currently living on the International Space Station (ISS).

Astronauts on ISS have working days of 15 hours, with two hours of mandatory exercises, eight hours of work and one hour of free time.

Professor Berthoud emphasizes that this lack of control can cause astronauts to oppose or even do not respect the rigid orientations of the NASA mission.

Food, a big problem

Also, for both prisoners and astronauts, one of the biggest problems is the availability of fresh, tasty and nutritious foods.

The standard of the British Government for prisoners’ tables is set at 2.70 pounds per person, which means that food often has a low nutritional value and is famous and unpleasant.

While astronauts on Mars will probably have a much more expensive and pleasant food than prisoners, the lack of variety and fresh ingredients will continue to be a major restriction.

On ISS, NASA has invested huge resources in an attempt to make space food. However, the fact that astronauts lose their appetite and fail to maintain their weight is a constant concern.

However, the most important resemblance is that both prisoners and astronauts on Mars will face high isolation levels.

Prisoners, like astronauts on a distant planet, are removed from society and have contact with friends, family and exterior world reduced to a minimum. Even if astronauts willingly submit to this isolation, they face the same effects.

Professor Berthoud says: “I think the effects of isolation will be similar, but for Mars there will be the additional factor to feel very far from everyone you love and love. The fastest return home would be 6 months, which would increase isolation.”

Although Professor Berthoud says that life on Mars could be similar to a prison, this does not mean that NASA should model its colonies on Mars after the prison environment.

The bases on Mars should be equipped with measures to maximize intimacy and autonomy, while astronauts should be given significant activities to combat monotony.

Finally, solving these problems on Mars could even help us to make more habitable prisons on Earth.

Professor Berthoud says: “I would suggest that we would like to rethink the prisons to resemble the ideal space basis more! I would imagine that more space, more autonomy, more personalization, more sense of the goal would help anyone to cope with a stressful situation, even if they are there to keep the society safe.”

The secrets of the planet

Despite the fact that, billions of years ago, Mars housed lush oceans of liquid water, any trace of H2O on Mars is well hidden today.

But experts say that there are three kilometers of water buried under the surface in an area of ​​the planet’s equator, known as Medusae Fossae Formation (MFF)

The water is frozen in the form of ice in a layer with a thickness of over 3.7 km, according to the new data provided by the Mars Express space probe.

If they were melted, the water would cover the entire surface of the planet Mars with a layer of liquid up to 2.7 meters (8.8 feet) depth and would be sufficient to fill the red sea.

Although the melting of ice may require an ambitious drilling operation when astronauts land on Mars, it could be used for drinking or for plant cultivation.