Mars Isolation Experiment Begins
(NASA)
http://phys.org/news/2015-08-year-mars-isolation.html
1) What collected data could be the most useful for NASA? In what ways could the experiment prove to be useless?
2) Why might a former astronaut think about this differently than a junior high school student? In what ways might Buzz Aldrin and Chris Hadfield think similarly about this experiment?
3) In which class would this topic be most appropriate? In what ways is this experiment more about physical health than psychology?
4) What if the participants all spoke different languages? Were related? The length of time was shortened to 1 month? Extended to 3 years?
5) In what ways is this experiment significant? What are the long term consequences on the participants? What are the short term consequences for NASA? What are the basic assumptions tested in this experiment?
Extension Activities:
1) Students can research the effects of extreme isolation on humans ("feral" children, solitary confinement, etc.) and write a story from the perspective of someone who is recruited by NASA because of their previous experience.
2) Students can write a journal in the voice of a future astronaut from different points in time, considering time traveled and their eventual return.
AoK: Human Sciences
WoK: Intuition
