Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit
A young formally fit person being capable of making a few steps doesn’t demonstrate “0 ill effects.” He was vastly weaker upon his return as shown by making a few steps being considered a significant achievement rather than an actual sign of fitness like lifting a heavy weight and moving it around.

Living on mars at 38% earths gravity is believed to make things worse over time, so no you can’t just consider transit times independently. On arrival they would likely be fine inside a habitat. But trying to walk around in an Apollo 11 era 180 lb pressure suit in 38% gravity would be nearly as strenuous as walking around on earth and we’d like them to be able to work not just take a few steps and sit down. It’s possible to reduce that weight, but needing to carry oxygen tanks means there’s quickly a tradeoff between lighter weight and less time outside.

Now, for an extremely brief touch Mars and come back while burning a huge amount of fuel to make a shorter trip sure they’ll survive. But start talking a 3 year mission and things don’t look good.

Polyakov was 52 years old when he did his 438 day stay, and astronauts always take a couple of days to readjust to gravity. The overall effects of well over a year in space seem pretty comparable to a few months in space. It's just not a big deal. Those Boeing astronauts (both around their 60s) have been stuck on the ISS for going on 9 months now, and NASA's basically like ¯\(ツ)/¯.

Back on Mars they'll be able to quickly regain their motor skills coordination, as well as strength/bone density. So it will be effectively equivalent to Earth in this regard - actually it will be even better than Earth because the reduced gravity will probably send the overall adjustment time down from a couple of days to a couple of hours, especially with a normal duration transit.

Yep 52, as I said still young. John Glenn flew a useful mission at 77 that’s old. Strength will often peak around 35 barring significant injury. Show me a 52 year old who’s happy to make a few steps and I’ll show you someone with significant impairment.

> stuck on the ISS for going on 9 months now

Stick right next to earth and all the medical care they would want on landing. That’s the difference they don’t need to be functional on earth.

> regain motor skills and coordinate

Meaning they’re nearly helpless for a significant period on landing. That’s a massive safety concern and limitation on mission profile.

> as well as strength/bone density

There’s serious concern around retaining let along regaining bone density on Mars. 38% g isn’t a well studied environment here but it’s a long way from earth and likely to result in significant bone loss up to a point. Meaning their trip back is now significantly more risky.

Never double down on stupid, just don't. At some point it might not just become a show.