IF YOU believe the late Stephen Hawking, we have 100 years to leave planet Earth before overpopulation and climate change let loose war, famine, disease and pestilence.
In our species鈥� quest to become , Mars has emerged as a front runner for a first new home. It is an unfriendly place though, and terraformers would face cramped habitats.
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This, it turns out, is a big deal. We can test equipment on Earth for some guarantees against failure, but the mission components most likely to fail are the most important ones 鈥� us. We badly need data about anticipating human 鈥渇ailure mode鈥�. We are unpredictable, with quirks, biases, bad habits, a tendency to rebel and to crack under pressure 鈥� especially in a group.
Several Earth-based missions have made a start by studying crews of volunteers sealed into claustrophobic habitats designed to mirror the real Mars. Lynn Levy found out about one 鈥� NASA鈥檚 $1.2 million Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) IV mission 鈥� just weeks before it was due to shut the hatch. Levy, a senior producer at Gimlet Media and veteran of the award-winning Radiolab podcast, dropped everything to fly to Hawaii, drive a jeep across the arid lava fields and convince the volunteers to take her recording equipment with them.
The result is The Habitat, seven half-hour episodes telling the true story of six strangers who spend a year living and working in a white dome the size of a triple garage, perched on a remote slope of the Mauna Loa volcano.
NASA鈥檚 real-world version of The Martian started out in 2012; HI-SEAS IV was the longest of the missions, running from 2015 to 2016. Its international crew were physically fit 20 to 30-somethings with no astronaut training, so NASA gave them an intensive course in basic research, fieldwork and kit testing. They also learned how to make the best of the instant food that would be their only fare.
In the early episodes, Levy dwells on the kind of body horror stories familiar from space lore. Water-free toilets and unregulated bathroom schedules don鈥檛 mix, it turns out. When the system goes wrong, the crew quickly learns discipline over who goes where to do what and when. Our host Levy reminds us of what happened in 1969 when NASA found its system of going to the bathroom took an hour and resulted in literal floaters. The replay of the conversation at the time gave me an image I won鈥檛 soon forget.
鈥淭he feeling of being trapped with the crew got so intense I needed to be outside to listen at all鈥�
Fifty years on, fart jokes fulfil the function of dialling back on the existential horror and awe of living in cramped, unnatural conditions with strangers. 鈥淚 had a relationship with that fart,鈥� says a crew member, after he makes a bad decision on a spacewalk with no access to outside air.
But the walk would have been spoiled either way by breathing stale, recycled air, with the helmet misting over. You would never be able to hear the Martian gale over the fan in your ear. In a sense, you never really go outside. The capacity for such intimacy is one reason why podcasts are so wildly popular. The feeling of being trapped with the crew got so intense I needed to be outside to listen at all.
Naturally, everyone wants to know about the other kind of physical stuff. Who鈥檚 going to hook up? Who will be the group outcast? No spoilers 鈥� the show does deliver. But the history and space psychology make the voyeurism a guilt-free indulgence. Beyond the soap, The Habitat鈥榮 drama produces genuine insights into the kinds of relationships NASA psychologists should not only manage but perhaps orchestrate, to improve the chances of mission success.
None of this is likely to interest Elon Musk fans, with their dreams of a libertarian space colony. No matter, since that is as distant as ever. No organisation or country on Earth could afford it. Not even the United Arab Emirates, with its plan for a City of Wisdom on Mars.
In the end, we are left thinking about how important it is to fix our home on Earth. The notion of never being able to feel the breeze on your bare arms doesn鈥檛 cross your mind at first, but once it does, Mars fantasies vanish in a plume of fart-smelling smoke. Suddenly, Earth is the only place to be.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淢eet the Martians鈥�
