That people will travel to Mars, and soon, is a widely accepted conviction within NASA. Rachel McCauley, until recently the acting deputy director of NASA’s Mars campaign, had, as of July, a punch list of 800 problems that must be solved before the first human mission launches. Many of these concern the mechanical difficulties of transporting people to a planet that is never closer than 33.9 million miles away; keeping them alive on poisonous soil in unbreathable air, bombarded by solar radiation and galactic cosmic rays, without access to immediate communication; and returning them safely to Earth, more than a year and half later. But McCauley does not doubt that NASA will overcome these challenges. What NASA does not yet know — what nobody can know — is whether humanity can overcome the psychological torment of Martian life.
A mission known as CHAPEA, an experiment in which four ordinary people would enact, as closely as possible, the lives of Martian colonists for 378 days, sets out to answer that question.
Trump’s Domination and the Battle for No. 2 in Iowa
The Sunday Read: ‘How an Ordinary Football Game Turns Into the Most Spectacular Thing on TV’
In Iowa, Two Friends Debate DeSantis vs. Trump
The Threat of a Wider War in the Middle East
Trump’s Case for Total Immunity
The Afterlife of a Gun
The Wild World of Money in College Football
The Sunday Read: ‘Ghosts on the Glacier’
A Confusing New World for College Applicants
Why Are So Many More Pedestrians Dying in the U.S.?
Biden’s 2024 Playbook
Trump's 2024 Playbook
Baseball’s Plan To Save Itself From Boredom: An Update
A Mother, a Daughter, a Deadly Journey: An Update
Inside Russia’s Crackdown on Dissent: An Update
How A Paradise Became A Death Trap: An Update
Biden Supports Israel. Does the Rest of America?
The New State of the War in Gaza
Why a Colorado Court Just Knocked Trump Off the Ballot
Football’s Young Victims
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Up First
Today, Explained
Post Reports
What Next | Daily News and Analysis
The Rachel Maddow Show