The six-man crew of the
MARS-500 mission entered orbit around the red planet yesterday, after eight months in space. Presumably they do actually know they haven't moved an inch from the test facility at Moscow's Institute of Biomedical Problems, but the situation is reminiscent of at least two science fiction stories in which the crews of simulated space missions weren't so fortunate. The characters in Isaac Asimov's "Ideas Die Hard" (1957: reprinted in
The Winds of Change
) think they're on a flight to the moon, but actually they're guinea pigs in an experiment on the psychological effects of space travel. But that's nothing compared to J.G. Ballard's "Thirteen to Centaurus" (1962: reprinted in
The Best Short Stories of J.G. Ballard
), where the non-existent voyage is going all the way to Alpha Centauri, and the experiment has already been underway for fifty years (and the crew are into their second generation) when the story takes place!
2 comments:
Andrew, if you are interested in some of the human aspects of travelling to Mars you should read "Packing for Mars" by Mary Roach. It very interesting and also totally amusing. There are some aspects of life in mirco-gravity that an earth bound simulation cannot prepare anyone for, the chapter "Separation Anexity" explains all :-)
PJ
Thanks for the tip - I'll look out for it.
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