It’s people not technology that might be the biggest challenge to space travel
To bodly go where no one has gone before … a five year mission … Okay let’s stop there. Five year mission! Yikes! As NASA is working on getting back on the Moon and establishing a colony there, Mars is in their sights too. Sending people to Mars. The dream of many young, potential space traveller (and some older ones too). Turns out that (with current propulsion technology) the six month trip out, time there, and time back NASA is pretty concerned about how the astronauts themselves will fair. From the Discovery Channel News…
Anxiety, loneliness and tensions with crewmates, a daily battle to maintain fitness and avoid accidents, DNA-shredding radiation from solar flares or cosmic rays — all these make mental and physical health the key to whether a long-term mission will succeed or fail catastrophically.
Benny Elmann-Larsen, coordinator of physiology in human space flight at the European Space Agency, says psychological stress could be the biggest problem of all.
“The human factor is the most uncertain factor,” Elmann-Larsen said.
Source: Discovery Channel :: News - Space :: People Make Space Exploration Tricky
Yeah, that might be a problem. Somehow the idea of someone going nuts on a space craft (read flying bomb) isn’t very pleasant. Are they making progress? Umm, not really. Some experiments they’ve done thus far have resulted in fist fights, sexual harrassment, and other unpleasantness.
Looks like unless we can make the trip shorter, we’re going to have problems.