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<\/a><\/p>\nSecondly, we are working in shifts; two people at a time will be sleeping in the two usable beds. We have six staterooms onboard, but four of them are filled with items we will need when we get to Mars. Actually, we each use our own pillow and sleep sack on top of the mattress, so we’re not really sleeping ‘in the bed’. The good part is, once we are on the ground and those other bedrooms are emptied, we’ll each have our very own bedroom.<\/p>\n
We work an eight-hour shift (though there really isn’t much work to do until we get to Mars) and then are off with eight hours of free time before turning in. We get seven hours on the bed, and then have an hour to get ready for work and eat breakfast.<\/p>\n
* What kinds of food do you have on the ship? Hannah – Cancer 23, 0025 (03-27-2006)<\/p>\n
We have a pretty good selection of food to choose from. There are most of the usual things you might have in your cupboards at home, like pasta, crackers, canned soups, tuna, canned meats, peanut butter, salt & pepper, hot sauce, salsa, and many more pre-packaged things. From our hydroponic and traditional gardens we will be harvesting a lot of fresh vegetables and some fruit. We have strawberries, tomatoes, potatoes, sweet peppers, jalapenos, cucumbers, radishes, turnips, leaf lettuce, and spinach. To keep the food from getting boring, we brought along a variety of dried spices.<\/p>\n
I like to have a bowl of cereal for breakfast, but we didn’t bring a cow along with us to give us milk. So, we had to improvise. When planning for this trip we contacted a cereal company in Battle Creek, Michigan and asked them to make us a special kind of cereal – one that has powdered milk stuck right on the cereal. That way, all we need to do is add water and it becomes milky again. And, we have several varieties: plain and sugar-frosted flakes, cocoa flavored puffed cereal, something like granola or muesli, and an o-shaped oat cereal with freeze-dried bananas and blueberries mixed into it. We also have raisins to mix in with the flakes, my favorite!<\/p>\n
* Are you floating around all the time? Jacob – Scorpio 38, 0025 (12-29-2006)<\/p>\n
No, that’s not necessary. On this trip, we are using centrifugal force to simulate Earth-normal gravity, so we don’t feel the effects of zero gravity. We have separated our habitat from our burnt-out primary booster rocket engine, by a long tether. By rotating these two parts around the center of gravity along the tether, at different speeds, we can make the artificial gravity as strong or as weak as we want it to be. When we come home from Mars we will start out at 38% of Earth’s gravity (about the same as Mars’s gravity) and gradually build back up to Earth-normal gravity. That way we won’t be fighting the sudden change of Mars gravity versus Earth gravity.<\/p>\n
In the early days of the Russian space station Mir, the cosmonauts would spend six months to a year in zero gravity. Then, when they returned to Earth, their muscles were so badly weakened, the cosmonauts had to be carried. They learned that without gravity, your muscles don’t have as much to do, so they get weak. By exercising two or three hours each day, some of that effect can be overcome, but it’s a lot easier on the body if we just take the gravity along with us.<\/p>\n * Do you get space sick? Amber – Libra 16, 0025 (10-06-2006)<\/p>\n From time to time, some astronauts do experience space sickness (basically, motion sickness). Others never seem to feel the effect, at all. A study was done once (I don’t remember when or by whom) with a variety of people to see what type of person was most likely to get sick. It turns out that the more body fat one has, the less likely he or she is to get sick. There didn’t appear to be any other signs to indicate how anyone might be affected. Age, height, male or female, none of it seemed to make any difference. The leading cause of space sickness is the effect of Zero Gee on the inner ear, and with the artificial gravity we have eliminated that problem. Check out my previous answer for some more information.<\/p>\n Do I ever get space sick? You bet! I did on my first mission, a lot. It kept happening until I became used to the feeling of flying through the air without wings. But now I think it’s a lot of fun. The feeling is really liberating, I hope all of you get to experience it someday. Not the sickness, just the feeling that you can fly. It is so wonderful!<\/p>\n * How do you go to the bathroom up there without gravity? Lee – Libra 43, 0025 (11-03-2006)<\/p>\n In the old space shuttles and on board the International Space Station, they had special toilet facilities, which use restraints to help hold a person in place while using it. A system of air jets and vacuum pumps keeps things flowing in the right direction. We wouldn’t want anything to back up.<\/p>\n Taking a shower is another challenge. The water just hangs in the air when there is no gravity. This can cause a severe breathing problem for someone taking a shower, as the water can float right up the nose and down into the lungs when you inhale. The shower stall has to be a very confined space, with air jets to keep the water away from the face. Surface tension causes the water to cling to pretty much anything it comes into contact with, so when the shower water is turned off, a squeegee is used on the inside of the shower. Then a hand-held vacuum is used to remove the water from the skin surface, and then on the walls, floor, and ceiling of the shower to get the rest of the water off.<\/p>\n On board the Bolo One, we don’t have any problems like that because the artificial gravity system makes it work just like an Earth toilet and shower. That way, we can use the bathroom the same way you do. Good thing, eh?<\/p>\n * Can you breathe on Mars without a space suit? Ricky – Virgo 59, 0025 (09-14-2006)<\/p>\n Not yet. The atmosphere of Mars is mostly carbon dioxide, about 96%. Then nitrogen follows that at 2.7%, argon at 1.6%, and oxygen at only 0.2%. From there, the quantities fall off even more for carbon monoxide, water vapor, nitric oxide, neon, krypton, formaldehyde, xenon, ozone, and finally methane at a mere 10 parts per billion. By comparison, Earth’s atmosphere is 79% nitrogen, 20% oxygen, and 1% other gases. I say, ‘Not yet’ because there are a lot of very smart people working on the idea of terra-forming Mars. That is, to someday change the environment in such a way as to make the air thicker, warmer, and less toxic. Something like that will take a very long time, maybe several hundred to a thousand years to complete. Or perhaps someone who is in school right now might come up with a better way to make those changes in just a few decades. Who knows?<\/p>\n * How cold is it on Mars? Grace – Virgo 02,0025 (07-17-2006)<\/p>\n Very!! The minimum temperature as measured by the Viking lander was -107\u00b0C, and the maximum -17.2\u00b0C. And the Viking Orbiter Infrared Thermal Mapper has shown extremes from a low of -143\u00b0C (-225\u00b0F) to a high of 27\u00b0C (81\u00b0F). To find the difference between Celsius and Fahrenheit, you would take the Celsius temperature and divide it by 5. Then, multiply that number by 9, and then add 32. So, although -17.2\u00b0C sounds pretty cold, once you do the math, it’s -1.04\u00b0F. When I was a kid, we would spend hours everyday playing outside in temperatures like that. I liked to go sledding and ice-skating, then coming home to hot cocoa (Mom made the best).<\/p>\n However, -107\u00b0C becomes -160.6\u00b0F. By comparison, the coldest temperature ever recorded on Earth was -89.2\u00b0C, on July 21, 1983 at Vostok Research Station, in Antarctic. There, you could toss a saucepan of boiling water into the air and it would drift back down as snow. I think that would be a fun trick for a party. Don’t you?<\/p>\n * How big is Mars? Brent – Gemini 57, 0025 (02-27-2006)<\/p>\n The radius of Mars is half that of Earth, or about 3400 km. For a comparison, it’s kind of like this: If you set a small soccer ball on the table to represent Earth, a baseball next to it, to represent Mars and then a golf ball next to that to represent our moon. Try that. I think you’ll be surprised to see just what that difference looks like.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n(Deck One Lavatory)<\/p>\n