The Insane Biological Cost of Living on Mars - Scott Solomon - #1065
episodePreviously titled “#1065 - Scott Solomon - The Insane Biological Cost of Living on Mars” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 2, 2026
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What is the NASA Chappier experiment and its significance?
What's the NASA Chappier experiment? It's just hit the 100-day mark.
Yeah, it has. Yeah. So this is basically a, it's a simulation. It's a way of trying to understand what life would actually be like for people living on Mars. And the way that they're doing this is by they've created a mock-up of a space settlement. And they've built it in Johnson Space Center in Houston. So just down the street from me here, really. And it's built to be kind of like what they think it would actually be like on Mars, right? So they actually 3D printed it, which is one of the technologies that has been suggested for how we might build structures on Mars. And then a group of, I believe it's four, a crew of four people have entered it, and they are living inside it, as you said, for 100 days so far, but the plan is for it to last a full year.
So this is kind of like a thing that people do when they're trying to understand what different aspects of space settlement might actually be like, is they create what are called analogs, basically a model that sort of replicates some aspect of a space environment, a space settlement in this case. And then they put people inside and try to sort of understand what happens. So... This is the second one that they've done. They did a full year already. And this is the second full year study of people inside this kind of mock-up of a Mars habitat.
How much do you think they're testing physiological change versus psychological change?
Yeah, I think a lot of what these analog studies try to get at, and is true of this study as well, is the psychology. Because, of course, they can't replicate a lot of the physical conditions of being on Mars. You know, there's one-third the Earth's gravity, right? They're not simulating that. There's probably going to be a lot higher radiation exposure in a Mars habitat, and they're not simulating that. Excuse me. So some of the things that they can simulate are, of course, being in a confined space, being in a area where you're limited to what you brought with you. They're not able to kind of come and go and they're not able to bring new materials and supplies in or out. And, you know, another big part of it is sort of the interaction between the crew members.
So what is it like to be, you know, more or less stuck with just the other three folks that you brought with you for an extended time period?
It's the most boring episode of Love Island ever filmed, but it lasts for an entire 12 months.
Yeah.
I really think they could make some reality TV shows out of these analogs because there's quite a few of these types of things that are in different places. I went and visited one of them, actually, when I was researching my first book, which just touched on the idea of analogs. how we might change in space. And that was out in Utah. It's called the Mars Desert Research Station and a remote facility in a place in the desert that really kind of looks like Mars. And so I went out there and visited a crew that had just begun a simulation. And it was fascinating to see kind of, you know, what they're doing and how the ways that they try to kind of make it feel realistic and the kind of things that they try to learn.
And there's a whole bunch of these.
Yeah.
How much is space exploration an evolutionary event versus a technological one?
Well, that's really the thing that I'm most interested in. So my background, I mean, I'm an evolutionary biologist. Right. And so the thing that got me most interested in this topic of like, how will people be affected by being in space is the question of would making a long term settlement on Mars or anywhere else lead to evolutionary change? From my perspective, I think it's inevitable. I think basically if you are creating a situation where people are not just going and coming back, but they're going to live there. In other words, they're moving there. That's where their lives are. And most importantly, they're having families there. They're raising children there. Once you start talking about a multiple generation, generational presence on another world,
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the NASA Chappier experiment and its significance?
0:00–5:06
2
How do analog studies help us understand living conditions on Mars?
5:06–9:07
3
What psychological and physiological changes occur in space?
9:07–13:07
4
How does living in a confined environment affect crew dynamics?
13:07–18:29
5
What evolutionary changes can we expect from long-term Mars habitation?
18:29–21:58
6
How will isolation on Mars impact human psychology?
21:58–26:28
7
What are the challenges of human reproduction in space environments?
26:28–34:47
8
What ethical considerations arise from colonizing Mars?
34:47–1:22:36
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from Modern Wisdom
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