Key danger to astronauts on mission to Mars: Boredom?

One effective way astronauts combat boredom is by staying busy with work. That’s a strategy at HI-SEAS, where the crew member Kate Greene told me that her schedule is packed — every hour planned and accounted for, from the time she wakes up to the time she goes to bed at night. Life on the International Space Station is similar. (In fact, historically, NASA’s problem has been overworking people: in 1973, the exhausted crew of Skylab 4 actually staged a relaxation rebellion and took an unscheduled day off.) But Antarctica is different from HI-SEAS or the International Space Station. Communications are limited. There’s nobody outside the base directing your day. Spectacular views vanish in a haze of white. It’s just you, the people you came in with, no way out and little to break up the monotony.

And so some researchers there have learned to actively fend off boredom by creating what you might call a unique office culture. They celebrate a ridiculous number of holidays, both traditional and invented. You need something to look forward to, Suedfeld says, and planning the events helps change the routine. Even Ernest Shackleton’s Antarctic crew found ways to put on skits and concerts. On one expedition, Shackleton brought a small printing press. At McMurdo Station, the 1983 winter crew created costumes, learned lines and acted out scenes from the movie “Escape From New York.” It’s possible that we may, someday, watch recordings of Mars-bound astronauts acting out other John Carpenter films. (It’s not so far-fetched. Chris Hadfield, a Canadian astronaut, made a tribute to David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” that racked up more than 16 million views on YouTube.)

It might sound absurd, but many scientists say strategies like this are necessary because, without proper mental stimulus, we risk making a physically and technologically challenging endeavor into a psychologically grueling one. It would be catastrophic if humanity’s greatest voyage were brought low by the mind’s tendency to wander when left to its own devices.