snip
I'm sure they have some sort of a plan already put together should an
astronaut totally wig out in space?

Yes there are. I belive the documents were on NASA Watch at one point.
Try using Google.

up", or do they have syringes that they could quickly inject someone with.
(tranquilizer) ?

NASA ignored *a lot* of the advice of the Russians during the Shuttle-Mir
program, not just advice related to mental health of its astronauts.

"Derek Lyons" <fairwater@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:45d2dfc7.1812874515@news.supernews.com...

"Steven L." <sdlitvin@earthlinkNOSPAM.net> wrote:

Long-duration spaceflights with large crews (e.g., trips lasting several
years to the outer planets) are still a big unknown. We don't know if a
large, mixed-gender crew will degenerate over several years like "Mutiny
on the Bounty" or "Lord of the Flies" or "The Caine Mutiny" or any of
the other scenarios we're already familiar with.

We don't know about mixed genders - but the literature on single
gender (I.E. male) is abundant.

The US Navy surely has a lot of data on the crews of nuclear submarines.

Many people said things like, "Because of the way we pick astronauts, we
would never fly a person that might have difficulty to Mars." I don't think
that would be said in a meeting today.

I've changed my mind about building a lunar base. I'm now thinking it
really is the only way to test out really long-duration spaceflight--put
a whole bunch of men and women on the moon for 5+ years and see how they
deal with it. They may form a new society, just like how tribes
self-organize on the TV show "Survivor." If things go really wrong,
rescue from Earth is only a few days away.

Yes, I know they work in teams today - but as Micheal Collins said,
"in pursuit of a common and greatly desired goal, almost anyone can
work together for a time". I suspect that the duration of training
for, and flying a Mars mission will exceed that time.

Syringes (or any other weapon) would quite easily end up in the hands
of an intelligent psycho before anyone else knew they'd gone over the
edge.

Syringes (or any other weapon) would quite easily end up in the hands
of an intelligent psycho before anyone else knew they'd gone over the
edge.


The commander would have the only key to the storage cabinet, but what if
it's the commander is the one who loses it?

...Highly competitive,
overachieving, individualistic alpha types are precisely the *wrong*
type to send on a long duration mission - but that's precisely the
kind of people the ASCAN selection process is designed to find.

Yes, I know they work in teams today - but as Micheal Collins said,
"in pursuit of a common and greatly desired goal, almost anyone can
work together for a time". I suspect that the duration of training
for, and flying a Mars mission will exceed that time.

I suppose NASA could borrow a nuke submarine and do a test run of a crew
who have been selected for the Mars trip. They need not be isolated
from the world, let them have 'net access and such they would have on
the Mars trip. So the scientists on board can continue to publish
papers and email them and not perish in their science careers. The
purpose of this test run would be to see if everyone can handle being
cooped up with the same few people for 6 months or more.

Though with a sub, if a really serious problem comes up you can head
for the nearest Navy base, which is at most a day away.

IIRC, something similar has already been done, by NASA, with a
submarine. I don't recall the duration, but the accomplishment got
little attention because some other NASA event (may have been Apollo
11) completely overshadowed it.

Austin

Syringes (or any other weapon) would quite easily end up in the hands
of an intelligent psycho before anyone else knew they'd gone over the
edge.


The commander would have the only key to the storage cabinet, but what if
it's the commander is the one who loses it?

"robert casey" <wa2ise@ix.netcom.com> wrote in message
news:yKLyh.22142$w91.10955@newsread1.news.pas.earthlink.net...

Syringes (or any other weapon) would quite easily end up in the hands
of an intelligent psycho before anyone else knew they'd gone over the
edge.


The commander would have the only key to the storage cabinet, but what if
it's the commander is the one who loses it?


How do you keep the commander of a nuclear missile facility from
launching?