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A comment on Colonizing Mars: A Critique of the SpaceX Interplanetary Transport System. Parent comment

Re:Colonizing Mars: A Critique of the SpaceX Interplanetary ... by nabla9 on Friday October 21, 2016 @11:00PM (#12766875)
They are not experimenting with sustainable biosphere. They eat prepackaged foods and are not completely sealed from their environment. They just simulate trip to Mars psychologically and test foods.

There was Biosphere 2 experiment few decades ago, but they could not keep the biosphere stable.

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Re:Colonizing Mars: A Critique of the SpaceX Interplanetary ... by pmoriarty on Saturday October 22, 2016 @01:46AM (#12767412)
I'm skeptical of how effective a simulation of a trip to Mars would be.

There's just a huge psychological difference between knowing that you're in space, millions of miles from Earth or any kind of help and knowing you're in a simulation on Earth.

I suppose it's possible to fool people that they're in the former while actually being in the latter. But the ethical issues surrounding such an experiment would make it out of bounds for NASA. It might make for a fun scifi story, though.

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