Nasa seeks volunteers for experiments: “Big Brother on Mars”

Are you smoke free, healthy and keen to be locked up for a year?
In that case, you meet some of the requirements that Nasa now places on its test subjects for a Mars experiment.
– There are certain aspects of a future colonialization that one tries to imitate, says space researcher Gabriella Stenberg Wieser.

50 years have passed since man was last on the moon, but that is not where the space world’s eyes are directed these days.

Mars, “the red planet”, has taken over the throne of heavenly bodies we want to get to. Billionaire and entrepreneur Elon Musk dreams of sending a million people to Mars with his space company SpaceX, and now Nasa is getting in on the action.

150 square meters for a year

The US space agency is looking for four test subjects for an experiment where the idea is to simulate a possible stay on Mars, and the mission includes, among other things, living trapped in a kind of module for a year.

– There are certain aspects of a future colonialization that one tries to imitate with this experiment. So you simply lock people in, in 150 square meters, and then you see what happens. There is some kind of “Big Brother” on Mars, says Gabriella Stenberg Wieser, researcher at the Institute for Space Physics in Kiruna.

But not just anyone can apply for the experiment. A number of qualifications must be met, such as being healthy, a non-smoker, between the ages of 30 and 55, and a US citizen.

Social experiment

The focus of the experiment is on the social, and coping with limited resources, says Gabriella Stenberg Wieser.

– They have given resources. You can’t go and buy another liter of milk if you’re on Mars, and you can’t send for the hammer you forgot. How do people react to it and how should we prepare in the best way possible so that such an expedition can succeed without them killing each other, she says.