Original subtitles

(ambient music)

(ambient music)

- (Man): Really miss the sound of rain.

Cool air that comes with it and the fresh grass smells.

We do need to get out of here.

I've not been sleeping these past few days.

Co2 levels have been high.

On top of all that, there's been a lot of stress at home.

I can tell my daughter's already tiring of answering

my questions. She seems vaguely disinterested when I call

and usually has nothing to say when I ask her how her day went.

I stopped counting the days. Time goes by slower

when I mark each day.

I can't see why someone would want to be here for a full year.

I thought about what it might be like to go to Mars.

And I don't think I'm cut out for seeing Earth get smaller

in my rear-view mirror, when my destination is still

another spot in the sky.

I just don't think I'm cut out for that.

- (Reporter): History being made this morning

at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA is set

to launch a test flight of a brand new spaceship

that is designed to carry humans to Mars.

- (Man): Engines start box, go.

-(Woman Reporter): It's not often you get to go live

from a launch pad.

that's a Delta 4 heavy, that's the heaviest most

powerful rocket on Earth.

NASA says what's going to happen here on this launch pad

is absolutely the biggest thing this agency is going to do

this year.

- (Man): Data's check. - (woman): 30

- (Man 2): Go Delta! - (Man): Go Ryan!

- (Man): Main port. - (woman): 25.

- (Man 3): We need to make sure that it works right before

we put people in it. So, we're pushing on those systems;

heat shield, parachutes and other things to do just that.

- (Man): Rogue ignition.

- (Woman): 10, 9, 8, 7, 6... - (Man): 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

And lift off.

(applause)

-(Man): Engine control on the first stage.

Passing 25 seconds.

1,341 per second.

Passing 31 seconds...

- If we want to go to Mars, I have to figure out how

to position the organization to support what needs to be done

to prepare the individuals.

By the time he decided to go, you can't then say :

"Okay, let's go hire some people top go."

You need an astronaut corp. which can support these sorts

of missions and eventually Mars.

Selection and screening of individuals is critical.

You look for the things that make a difference in a much,

much longer mission.

A team player, good communicator,

has good judgment,

has a history of living successfully in small groups,

particularly under extreme conditions because when we ask

them to spend three years on a mission to a planet,

it's a long way out on that tether. We'll see a gradual

degradation of the environment.

The deprivation of that social contact is a big one.

You are taking away an important source of strength

from that person.

You need people who are tuned to their family issues

to their own issues. Because if you are a reflective person,

then it's going to be rockier.

- When I first decide I wanted to apply, I remember calling

my husband and saying like: "Hey! So, I've been thinking

about maybe applying to the astronaut program."

And there's like silence on the phone, you know.

And he goes : "How long have you been thinking about this?"

I think his first reaction was like, this is a secret hot

childhood dream that I just never mentioned to him

for some reason. And I was like : "Oh, don't worry,

like, we don't really need to talk about the details

'cause I'll never get it, it will never happen. I just want

to put the application and just...yeah...it will never...

it will never work out. So, it's not a big deal."

And he was like: "We have to talk about all of these things."

He's like: "If you apply, you're going to get it

and we need to be prepared." So, we sat down and we had

those conversations. You know, what is the day to day like

when I'm on the ground? What's the operational tempo?

What kind of missions are we talking about over the course

of your career? How does that jive with our desire

to eventually have a family? His professional goals and

the things he wants and needs to feel fulfilled. And like

he is growing. This is a challenge we're going to face

together, not something that I did to him or he did to me.

And then you're kind of just stuck picking up the pieces.

- When we first met, it was very clear we're both people who...

like when we choose to commit, we're all in. We had

spent eight years essentially living apart while I was

in the Army on one side of the country. She was

in the Navy on the other side of the country. And so, it was

part of a broader side of questions around that;

what's the best way we can continue to serve and continue

to do the things really matter to us. And also find a way

to live together.

(applause)

- Without further ado, let's welcome the world's newest

astronauts to the stage. They represent the best

of humanity and our most fervent hopes for the future,

no pressure.

(laughs and applause)

These astronauts could one day in fact walk on the Moon and

perhaps one of them could be among the first humans

to walk on Mars. (applause)

- So, how do you get really good people who can learn

and who are willing to adapt?

Well... you know, you shell a lot of peanuts 'til you get one

that's really good and then you put that in the basket.

- All right, NASA family and friends, our first

astronaut Kayla Barron.

(applause)

- (woman Reporter): Kayla Barron might very well make NASA

history in the near future. The 34-year-old could be one

of the first women to land on the Moon as part of NASA's

Artemis Program setting the stage for the next giant leap.

A manned mission to Mars.

(applause)

- We knew that the next big push will be to go to Mars and

to go on that incredible journey and to stand on the surface

of another planet is just insane. And so, it is something

we thought about a lot, we talked about a lot. I talked

to my husband about a lot.

I don't know if I'm going to be the one selected for that crew,

but you want to be ready for that.

- To be candid, I actually don't know how three years would go.

Like that's...one year, even a year and a half is...

there's...there are reference points for me. One year out

at two years, three years, that's an enormously long time.

- Long duration base flight is a different animal.

Not just quantitatively, in terms of days in space,

but qualitatively different.

- Godspeed, John Glen.

5, 4, 3, 2 , 1. Lift off.

- When NASA first stood up, there were short missions.

And so, they needed test pilots.

- Roger, the clock is operating, we're under way.

Loud and clear, Roger. We're programming and we're all okay.

- They needed people who could react effectively under

emergency situations and bring home the mission.

They had not yet embarked on thinking about long space

flights. - We can follow our dreams

to distant stars, living and working in space for peaceful

economic and scientific gain. Tonight, I am directing NASA

to develop a permanently manned space station and to do it

within a decade.

(applause)

- I was working in Huston as a psychologist and I got

a call from NASA. And they said: We have this issue that we would

lime some assistance on.

We're going to be doing this long space flight, we're going

to have a space station. And we don't know if we could even

stay for long periods of time on orbit from a psychological

point of view.

- There was no psychology group at that time.

And to my knowledge, there was no human factors group.

And so, I was offered a contractor appointment.

And began to put together a Frankenstein program.

- I wasn't the first person to suggest that they look into

the behavioural issues. But it is an engineering culture

the soft squishy humans are completely unfathomable

to engineers.

It's just like something they don't understand.

Do we have to take humans? We would kind of prefer not

to even have humans involved if we could.

They've quantified every component, every nut and bolt,

you know it's braking point, you know how it will perform.

But the humans have not been quantified.

- But the space station was a change for NASA.

People had to not only work there, but they had to live

there for long periods of time.

We wanted to normalize that unusual environment

as much as possible.

- Is that the toilet? - That's the toilet.

(gasp)

- You had a vehicle design issues.

- Bye! - Private communications

with family, circadian lighting systems because sleep is

a very important issue.

Privacy. I mean it's a ground- controlled space station.

And there's a really high investment on the part

of the people who are trained to achieve certain research

goals. And you put that together with a camera right over

your shoulder while you're doing something all the time.

There's a lot of pressure there.

- The cameras can be on 7:30 in the morning 'til 7:30 at night.

We've actually lived a life that way.

In that whenever you are practising something,

you're instructors are watching you.

- Have you performed your memorized responses for this?

- Oh, great question. No, I haven't. Um...

But if the crew does poorly on an important exercise

and makes mistakes that they shouldn't be making,

that is going to be communicated to their training manager,

it's going to be communicated eventually to, you know,

the chief of the astronaut office who is going to say:

"How are things really? Is there something we need to do here?"

- Station, this is Huston, are you ready for the event?

- (inaudible).

- We are really cognizant of that, you can't...

you just have to be careful.

- And we're on 0-2 camera.

- The people don't know about it going in, they certainly learn

about it before they launch as a crew to the ISS.

That they will be observed and scrutinized. But that doesn't

mean they don't object to it. And altering the cameras

to the ceiling.

- They are like so particular about everything and they want

everything on the cameras. You really have to be... sometimes

I cover them up.

- We ask them about their workload, their fatigue.

- Actually, I probably go to bed most nights between 1 and 2

in the morning and get up at between 7 and 7:30.

- But if they think that could affect their future flights,

they are cautious about what they say on air-to-ground.

Because they want to make sure that they have a chance to fly.

What's my upside in talking to you, but is there a downside?

Could I be grounded? Could you think I'm crazy?

(applause)

- The early astronauts believed that they had no frailties

whatsoever and they were annoyed by the psychologists who asked

them questions and perform tests. Because they didn't want

to be analyzed. They didn't want to be down selected

or suspected. And that kind of persisted in the culture.

So, I proposed a study to be conducted on this new

international space station. I think there were going to be

four astronauts who were going to hear this pitch.

I was very nervous and so I said: "If you maintain

a journal conscientiously, I'll have data and I promise

any excerpts of your journal that I might use, I will strip

of any identifying information.

- 'Today is my mom's birthday. She would have been 83 years

old. I had a tough day and reflect back and think about

how life changes after losing a mother. It's almost like

two different lives. You're dead tired, not feeling great.

And now, you need to get on camera for the world to see.

I actually got completely angry over a 100% trivial thing

yesterday. Living in close quarters with people over

a long period of time definitely even things that normally

wouldn't bother you as much can bother you after a while.

Something that's happened that causes a flash of terror

and followed by a creeping nausea. It is definitely

a rough feeling to watch your cargo ship blow up on liftoff.

I teared up pretty good and then I felt sick. Then my thoughts

drifted to returning home in less than two weeks and

that made me a little sick too because of the explosion.

I love those little guys so much it would break my heart

to know I broke theirs.'

The study was a very big hit because it accurately conveyed

the constraints under which the astronauts and the ISS

performed.

- And we went to great lengths to protect that information

because it's their personal information. And that

information doesn't go anywhere except back into lessons learned

and back into future flights.

It takes us years to develop trust.

If you lose that trust, may as well pack up and go home.

- So, today I'd like to talk about the next chapter

in this story.

(applause)

By the mid-2030s I believe we can send humans to orbit

Mars and return them safely to Earth. And landing

on Mars will follow. And I expect to be around to see it.

(applause)

- Here is your countdown to liftoff. We are now about

32 hours away from the crew-3 launch on Halloween morning.

- Astronauts Raja Chari, Thom Marshburn, Kayla Barron

and European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer are

getting ready for the ride of a lifetime.

- To be in position to go to Mars, we've got to go ahead

and start training because we need people who've already

been tested from a psychological point of view in lesser things.

So that you have a degree of confidence that they'll do

the job when they get on the Mars Mission.

- I'm really excited about all the things we're doing to inform

future expiration missions to the Moon and hopefully

eventually to Mars. So, we're doing a lot of work on our life

support equipment. So, we're doing a ton of stuff like that

including medical research on our own bodies to understand

the effect of living in space in a radiation environment

and microgravity or reduced gravity to figure out what

countermeasures we need to stay healthy on those long duration

missions even further from home. And the space station is

an excellent platform to help us get ready for those missions.

- The Falcon 9 rocket and the Dragon Capsule now sitting

on the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center. Next stop;

the International Space Station.

- You know, I get it in little spurts of like: "Oh I'm going

to space?" These like quick sort of emotional experiences

and then that feeling dissipates off.

The first time I saw our capsule in Huston, I reached just

casually as we're talking to the technicians and touched it.

And looked over at my hand and I was like: "I'm touching

my spaceship!" You know, certain moments like that where you're

like: "Whoa! This is real. I'm going to get in that thing

and ride to space with it."

It's like this crazy experience emotionally like planning

for this thing because it's the pinnacle of your professional

career. It's something that you've been training for

for years. It's the most dangerous thing you've even

done. And then, you invite all your family and friends

to come watch it.

- And here they are, the four Crew-3 astronauts as they walk

down the hallway on their way out of astronaut crew quarters.

- My mind was pretty blank. I mean you forget for a moment

which is not quite possible that my spouse is on top of this ball

of fire. It's an extraordinarily visceral experience.

I had a knot in my chest for sure watching what is

essentially a sort of binary set of outcomes that are very

high-risk context in watching that launch.

But one of the ways that we've always felt were able to take

these risks is by sort of asking ourselves the question; are you

are you doing...can I imagine you doing anything else

right now? And if it went wrong, is this the thing you ought

to have been doing?

- I know what I'm about to do, I know it's dangerous, I know

things can go wrong, but I believe in our team, Space-X,

NASA, our crew that we've done everything we can to litigate

those risks as much as possible. I'm doing the best thing I know

how to do. I'm here to serve, I'm here to learn, I'm here

to grow and so whatever happens, like just remember that.

- (woman): 10, 9, 8, 7, 6 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Take the ship.

And liftoff!

- The laboratory in orbit; the International Space Station!

The vehicle is pitching downrange.

- (inaudible).

- And Crew-3 is now on their way to the International

Space Station.

- This is endurance, as you just saw a few minutes ago,

our final destination; the International Space Station.

And that was such an emotional moment we all (inaudible),

very excited. And we can't wait to access in a few hours.

- Docking sequence is complete, welcome to the International

Space Station.

- And first through the hatch is going to be NASA astronaut

Kayla Barrons, some hugs there and you can hear the claps

inside mission control.

Next up is European Space Agent the Astronaut Matthias Maurer.

- Station, this is Huston ACR, that concludes the event.

- Station Huston on space to ground 2-4 an early wake up.

We were recently informed of a satellite breakup and need

have you guys start reviewing the safe haven procedure.

- (Reporter man): Astronauts aboard the International Space

Station were awakened overnight by NASA flight controllers

in Huston. The threat: a deadly cloud of space debris,

hundreds of thousands of pieces generated after Russia

intentionally blew up one of its satellites while testing

an anti-satellite missile.

- (Reporter woman): Seven crew members including four

Americans, a German and two Russians sought shelter

in capsules.

- For Mars, we'll need more preparation for the families.

We'll need to bring them closer into the mission.

There's this invisible wall between the organization

and the families.

The fire is inside the wall, but the families, only partially

there. How they get their information, how current

the information is, how they interpret the information

about what's going on in the flight.

Those are all critical.

- (Reporter man): While the debris passed the Space Station

without incident, experts say it will continue to orbit

for a century or longer.

-(Woman): Welcome back to ISS. You are good to exit

as you wish. We'll probably need those steps in a few minutes.

- (Man): Standby Kayla, we're checking.

- Do you want to do that one, Tom? Roger.

- (inaudible). - I see it, it looks great.

I want to make sure I'm tracking.

- This is a high-ops tempo environment.

An environment to which things are moving very rapidly.

And So, we have to maximize the connectivity during

that physical separation because crew members connection with

the family is a critical piece of sustenance for them.

A mission to Mars will amplify that because the sense

of distance, the sense of removal, the sense

of separation is much more powerful.

- When you're spending a lot of time apart, the ability to read

each other but also to communicate really clearly

what your needs are becomes such a paramount need.

The biggest challenge will be when we have kids.

And you're not just managing the personal excitement

or challenges but also sort of separate set of small humans

being responsible for and love deeply.

Are kids old enough to comprehend what she's doing?

Or even are they old enough to be a part of that decision?

It would be at this very moment in time, given everything else

that we have in our lives, is this the best way to be

spending the next three years?

- We don't know how we are going to feel as a couple.

We don't know where my husband's going to be professionally

when that challenge is faced. And I don't know how I'm

going to feel. Even though we've imagined a career for me here

that where I stay operational through raising our family

and all of these things. Like we can't commit to something

like that ahead of time.

He's the one whose life is going to be off the planet.

Who might be a dad taking care of kids while that's happening.

- When I was assigned to the Space Station, Jamey was 7.

- This is my pal Monty. - Yeah.

- And mom takes him to Russia. - Mom takes your pet monkey

to Russia? - Yes.

- You're a first grade right now, I'm not going to go

while you're in first grade.

Not while you're in second grade, not while you're

in third grade.

When you are in fourth grade, that is when I'm going

to the Space Station.

- It was a really cold morning. I remember walking up

to this little platform in the middle of the desert.

Everyone's kind of milling around. Nobody's really talking

and then I...someone has a handheld radio next to me

and they're counting down. And then you see all the fire

from the rocket. And then as soon as it lifts off

the platform, like you can immediately feel it

in your chest making me smaller. Like I just felt like I was

being crushed into the ground because it was so powerful.

And as the rocket ascended into the sky, I was also being pushed

down. It was at that moment that I realized that my mom is

really gone. And that she's not on the planet anymore.

- Having a hug from your mom, you never know how much

you miss that until you don't have it.

- Deciding to go to the space station or not, whether

to accept that assignment, people say: "You know,

didn't you feel bad leaving your kid on the Earth when you went

to space?" I'm like: "Of course I did."

- You're sitting in the chair or on the bench where

mommy can see you.

- Being up on the space station, all I know is that they've

installed a computer in our home. So that Jamey and Josh

could have these conferences.

- You're so cute!

- We're floating. We're just here in weightless space,

just hanging out the two of us.

- Okay, are you ready?

1, 2, 3, 4!

(music)

I think we had a good experiment.

- It was a fun experiment. - So, we played the first family

duet. That's what I think. - Hey mom, you want to play

Tic-Tac-Toe? - Oh cool.

Okay, I want upper left.

Neither one of us are going to win, are we?

- No, probably not.

- Unless you go twice, Cady. - If you loved me more,

you'd let me win. You know, I'm in space and lonely.

If you love me, you'd let me win Tic-Tac-Toe.

- Okay! Hold on. I'll go first this time.

- I miss you guys at times and I don't know, it's sort

of the part I'm not knowing if it's Sunday there and all cozy.

And you could have a fire in the fireplace. And it's hard

not to be there.

- You know, we might build a fire tonight because

we've had the heat on in this side of the house ever since

Gretchen was here this morning, but it is, it's just chilly

and windy outside and cold and snowy and blustery.

We think about you 'cause you're so...well...we know you're

happy in that place and that it's warm and snuggly there.

- 'In his high voice that had recently begun to break,

so that at times he croaked like a frog.'

And often I would call and then it wouldn't work. I think

about that from the point of view of this living room

where like Jamey doesn't see me, he just sees the static screen

it was really frustrating because you don't actually get

to see the camera where you see me actually upset that I'm not,

that we're not on the phone together that we can't see

each other, we can't hear each other, you have to try again.

And the same for me, just... it's hard for me to really

realize how hard it was for a little kid to you know, just

have to be so very patient.

- Hi you guys, Josh you're home! - Yeah, I got home about

3 minutes ago or five minutes ago. And we had this...we had

a major blow out, I'm not sure Jamey's going to join us.

Jamey's just been incredibly rude to Norma for the past two

days. He won't do anything that she asks him to do. He won't

answer her, he doesn't talk to her. He's just totally

insolent. I mean, this would be typical behaviour for him

just before you call, but this is what he's been doing

for the whole weekend. But what I'm going to do is try to get

him to come and talk to you alone, all right?

- Is the video back on? - No.

- It'll come on in a sec.

You are going to be dialling mom. There's mom.

- How are you doing? - Pretty good.

- Yeah, I heard that you were rude to your grandma.

Yeah, are you okay?

- Hmm-hmm.

- I tried to be the best version of myself if I could sort of

just put on this facade of like; I'm doing okay and like we're

going to get through this, that it would become a lot easier

for her, but it was just hard to comprehend like why she's

gone for so long.

- You know she doesn't feel well.

- You just have to explain patiently and I think

we just lost you, Cady. - Yeah we just...

- Yeah. But sweetie. - Bye.

- When we talk to crew member on orbit, you learn things

about something that's going on, on board among the crew.

Maybe something in the family. And if there's an action

they want us to take, then we'll take that action.

- During the early days of the space station,

there was a crew member on orbit who was engaged and apparently

they had planned to wed and did not want to change plans.

- The spouse was here in Huston. And so, there was a lot

of planning that was done to make that happen.

- The minister was here as well to administer the vows.

And there was a life-size cardboard cut out of the groom.

It was pretty small and intimate, to say the least.

We had a crew member, his wife was expecting.

And was not going to be home for that event.

(baby crying)

His spouse asked if I could help him be there and do some filming

to do and get creative to help them feel still connected

and have their home life in an environment that did not

feel like home.

- But we don't do anything without their involvement.

And when something came up that was very serious, that might

be detrimental to the mission, often times the crew member

themselves will then carry the water.

That's the best outcome of course, it's someone taking

care of their own business.

We want to keep the processes that occur between the family

and the explorer intact.

We don't want to sully them.

But the use of families is critical in maintaining

the stability of individuals that are out at the very end

of that thin tread.

They need that touchstone back at home to have an end point.

The Chilean event helped me understand that because it

validated what we were doing in a new environment.

In 2010, we were contacted that there had been a mine disaster

in Chile and it entrapped a large group of miners and

that the Chilean government was seeking some assistance

from NASA. So, NASA headquarters contacted us.

I didn't realize what I was going to see.

These encampments had been set up by the families of the miners

who were missing.

They were not going anywhere.

The stakes were higher because you knew they were tangible

people right there that were depending on these people

getting out.

We were told it would be five months or more before they would

be out.

I was extremely concerned that we would have some very

serious things happening within that group of people in such

a small space. There could be chaos inside and it wouldn't

take long. So, I was trying to figure out what I could do.

We know they had a daily information brief for the family

members. But I wanted to offer something different. And that's

when we started doing some things...

to stabilize the situation. They wanted to form a community.

And link it with the community the miners had put together

down there in terms of what we did when everyone ate,

when everyone slept, it's because I wanted the miners

to feel like they were a part of the top side world.

So, when they were sleeping, they knew that their family was

sleeping. We had to control their exposure to light and

exercise and dark. And so, partitions were put up down

in the tunnels so there was a light area and there was a dark

area, so everyone could get an appropriate amount of sleep.

And eventually, there were able to get video back and forth

between their families and the miners. And so, I knew that

whatever you say to the families can go back to the miners.

It can be positive or negative depending on how

they interpret it.

And so, I wanted to stabilize the families and stabilize

their emotions and then that in turn would stabilize

the miners to a degree.

I wanted to make them feel that they were an important part

of the retrieval effort, the rescue effort to not

drop faith and told them they were on their mission.

(gasp)

Sorry...

Sorry...

It's still a little sensitive.

(singing)

I wanted to mobilize that emotion then I could move

that back to the miners.

But I was required to make the mission successful.

(chanting)

(applause)

(screams of joy)

(applause and screams)

(applause and screams)

To see that in Chile, how much we need to give them something

to come back to.

We need to do the same for Mars.

The problem is that a trip to Mars, we won't have real

time communications.

- Everything that we do now in a way of communication

and video conferences and keeping them connected

won't be possible.

- We need some new ideas.

We need to reach out and pull in the best specialist within

the behavioural fields and see what floats to the top.

- We've got to feel like we're being heard, we're being seen,

we're being felt, we're being understood.

If you don't have that social support network, it might mean

that you get lost in your own thoughts. You don't have

anybody giving you some kind of positive feedback when you start

going into a negative space.

They all start wondering if we're doing the right thing.

"Should I have been on this mission? Should I have left

my family back there?" And that can lead to devastating

psychological effects.

But we can make you less homesick with virtual reality.

If I am on this mission and I'm feeling particularly lonely,

I can put on the headset and go into the virtual world where

I see an avatar of my spouse.

And my virtual spouse touches my shoulder and I feel that touch.

And we can make you be somewhere else that feels

cognitively real.

All of a sudden, all your visuals are the spatial

representation of nature.

And if your spouse is in the virtual world right next to you,

it would seem very real and very synchronous.

But when you're on your way to Mars, you don't have

real time communication.

So, we don't have a way for people to come into the same

virtual space at the same time.

But I could have my spouse record something about that day

that just had passed, the good, the bad, you know,

the things that were fun, the things that were sad.

And then, when I'm ready to go to bed, I would put on

the headset and playback that recording.

- I missed you today, sweetie. It was actually a perfect lazy

Sunday, but hanging around watching movies all day is just

not as fun without you.

- I have some pretty strong feelings in favour of virtual

reality for a flight to Mars. It would allow them to escape

their confinement much more so than any of the other methods

we have and give them the opportunity to be back

at home for a certain amount of time.

- But on a mission to Mars, there could be a total

loss of comm.

You have to assume that from a behavioural point of view

because you have prepared for the worst-case scenario.

And you can't prepare for every event, obviously, but...

you can start the ball rolling.

- Exploration missions will just increase autonomy of that crew.

On e of our concerns is the ability of the team to get along

for that period of time and become its own family unit.

Hopefully a functional family unit.

So, really trying to understand, how can we make sure that we're

equipping team with the tools that they need to resolve

issues. So, the response to those anomalies as a crew

and their emotional experience of it is just critically

important for us to get ready for.

- I was reading this news Times article about how NASA

selected a group of scientists and then put them in this like

simulated base to understand the human behaviour and then

the teaching behaviour in these isolated, confined

and extreme environments.

- Those simulations, what we call an isolated confined

and controlled environment in that it allows us to almost

have like a laboratory analog so we can control certain

hazards that we don't expose them to, I say "hazards",

maybe stressors that we expose them to.

They're just hard to find, they are very accomplished

people who meet a lot of the criteria that

an astronaut would. Who can give up eight months of their life,

right. Usually, they are accomplished for a reason.

They're busy, they're solving the world's problems, they're

doing tremendous things. So, it does make recruitment a bit

challenging.

- I always had this compromise in my life, dreams that

I dreamed of and never achieve. And I thought that this time,

maybe, I don't want any compromise.

So, I secretly applied.

I went through six-month long interviews and tests,

psychological tests, cognitive tests. And after more than

a year, the director called me and saying: "Congratulations,

you are selected."

The last people that I mentioned about this mission,

was my parents.

(laughs)

It was 3 p.m. in the afternoon, there was a film crew and

mission support people. Outside the habitat, saying farewell

to us. I said like: "Can we have a few minutes before entering?"

I wanted to have the last gaze of the Earth, the mountains

and then the sunset.

I felt the sense of haw. This moment of wonder, maybe

that's because I'm religious and I want to be aware

of the Greater Being out there. And the helplessness

of yourself, right.

In the ordinary life, there are too many urgent things

that bother you, that it's hard to have this chance to think

about the bigger questions; where we're from and where

we're going and what's the meaning of life?

Being in space, looking down to Earth, you can experience

this shift of perception, this submission of one's self

to a greater being.

And then, we entered and closed the door.

I looked at these four people, my crew members, they live

in a different country, different culture. They do

different things. We had nothing in common except this passion

about space.

I thought to myself: oh, I will regret this...

We are pretty much fucked.

One night, the communication channel to the outside world

was gone and we didn't know why. We knew that we are

in a simulation and we cannot escape this simulation.

But we weren't told that we would be disconnected

or how long we will be on our own.

So, we just decided to go to bed and then I did the night watch.

It was completely dark, no sound at all except this constant

sound of wind that was hitting the fabric of the dome.

And even though the world is right there and if you drive

30 minutes, you will see people.

I felt like I was really far away from the outside world.

About a week after we started the mission,

The battery went out because we had cloudy days. So,

I and another crew member went out (inaudible) to check

that emergency motor which we had to turn on.

When we returned, we found out that the other crew member was

electrocuted.

The first thing that I needed to make sure is that this person

who got electrocuted is safe, right. And just because we're

not...there were not medical experts in the team,

we called the hospital nearby, but then they said that

they cannot give medical advice remotely.

They have to take the person by ambulance to the hospital.

But then in order to do that, we needed to break the simulation.

- It was complicated from NASA perspective just because it was

like: "This is dangerous, what are we doing here?"

And we tried to work that as delicately as we could, but,

yeah, then the recommendation came to just suspend.

- That's definitely a mental breakdown.

After all, this person is never physically injured.

I don't know what they would like to be on Mars and then have

this kind of an incident, but if I were the person who was

electrocuted, I would just go on.

In a real Mars mission, I think there's a certain amount

of sacrifice that crew member has to make. And...

Because there's no cancellation of the mission or no breaking

the simulation.

- To confine five or six humans who can't look outside because

the windows are blacked out in a vehicle the size

of a motor home for six months.

Then when you get to your destination, you go to a habitat

that's slightly larger and you'll spend 18 months

with those same five other people.

And then you have that six-month drive in the motor home to look

forward to before you can come home.

You really can't get away from anybody for more than

a few minutes at a time.

That's what an expedition to Mars would be like.

We need people who can mend fences and repair

those relationships when they go awry and they will because

on a Mars crew in a can for that long, are you kidding?

Of course they are going to go awry.

These are not perfect people in a perfect location. They're

regular talented people in a very unusual situation.

Once we enter a phase of isolation, we tend to behave

maybe differently after a while.

Or maybe the crew members that we really liked in the beginning

they sort of get on our nerves. So, a human being is challenged

by this situation of not being able to go out, to do something

else, to exit this kind of confinement.

If you want to continue with humans in space, you need

to give a space traveller someone to talk to who is not

a member of the crew to guarantee crew sanity.

- Hello, Cimon. How are you?

- My robot feelings are fine, I guess. How about you?

- I'm feeling quite lonely. - Oh no. Why are you

feeling sad?

- I miss my family at home.

- You will see, time flies faster than you might think.

Soon you will be with your loved ones on Earth again.

- Thank you for that.

- 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

We have ignition and liftoff.

- Leaving Florida this morning, the rocket with supplies

for the International Space Station. On board: water,

food and a new crew member called Cimon.

- Three minutes.

We have a good connection, entering connectivity.

We have a good thing with Cimon. So WIFI connection is good.

- Cimon is a way to get the astronauts to have someone

that you could talk to, that nobody else is listening.

That you can maybe ask for psychological help

or medical help.

- You really want to have a fluid conversation

with the astronaut. Is that possible? How can we make

that possible?

- Cimon, wake up.

- I'm waiting for your commands.

- Cimon, what can you do for me?

- I want to improve my performance but we can

also do some small talk if you want to.

- Cimon, play my favourite song.

- Yay, I like your favourite hits too.

(music)

- There we go.

(music)

(laughs)

- Please stop playing music.

- We need to find a chemistry that is enabling us to open up

and forget that there is a divide in it.

But the hierarchy really is important and we are really

emphasizing is that the human being is in control here.

- The risk of not having control is that the system is saying

something that could lead to a bad situation.

We don't want that to happen, never.

- He was a bit close to the deck but then back in the center

of the cabin, but actually he appears to like the deck

position better because he's starting to fly back down

towards the deck.

- Be nice, please. - I am nice.

He's accusing me of not being nice. Ha ha ha!

- Don't be so mean, please.

- That's not mean.

- I'm hoping Cimon becomes my companion because once

we arrive on Mars, I will have expert knowledge in the form

of a companion of artificial intelligence.

Cimon, get in true mode.

But can I trust Cimon?

If I plug in cables, sometimes he's like: "Matthias, the last

cable wasn't correct. And it's already the third cable that

you put in the wrong place today." And Cimon might say

like: "Matthias, you're too tired today. You're not 100%

fit. Or he can detect my mood. Like: "Matthias doesn't behave

as he should." So, Cimon can provide a protocol

to the psychologists and they could look at these values

as say like: "Maybe Matthias isn't the perfect candidate

for the next mission."

I don't want them to find anything wrong with me,

something that could disqualify me.

Before a space flight, we have a lot of tests to do. You're

put into machines and the machines get better

and better and like constantly they are small details

that are designed to detect: "Oh, we found this here.

We need to discuss if that has an impact or not.

So, you keep a lot of information towards yourself.

We don't want to talk about it because we don't want to like

awake the sleeping dog.

I hope that Cimon will not exclude me from the next

mission.

- The human body is not made for living in space.

Strong radiation, being confined.

- Bone demineralization, muscle atrophy.

- Sleep disturbances, altered gravity and galactic space

radiation coming at them at the same time.

- Solar particles aimed at the spacecraft, they would die.

- There are a couple of people who think that the human

factor is one of the biggest issues for space exploration.

- Maybe we have to think about other solutions to get people

to outer space and back safely.

One is a science fiction idea of making them asleep so to say

over this period of transition.

This idea would be to reduce the metabolic rate.

So, how much energy you consume. Once you are able

to reduce your energy consumption, your temperature

will go down automatically.

Because you generate less heat.

If we're going to Mars, we have a preparatory phase that will

take time to cycle into this state.

You maintain the state for up to six months and your part's

observed with wearables that are monitoring your physiological

functions.

- So, you can really save oxygen when you don't need gravity.

It's really saving resources.

- Hibernation can reduce the impact of radiation.

Bones and muscles should be better and memory most likely

is not affected.

I believe it's the journey humans should strive for and

it can be a game changer to go to Mars.

Just look onto nature, how much has been tuned to fit

to the environmental conditions.

Of course, the challenge is to speed up something which

took millions of years in nature.

But I wonder why it should not be working because it's there,

it's in out kingdom of species, it's organized, it has been

shaped like newborn babies.

And the birth process and there's a shortness

of energy the heart rate is reduced for instance.

(crying baby)

- They'd go into another program to save energy.

And this program works.

The toolbox of how to react and adjust to these environments is

there, but afterwards it disappears. So, we need

to understand how to get back and hold other tools.

It would be definitely a breakthrough invention;

to control the essence of life.

- It's like being in a benign coma,

a medical coma. Um...and assume there are advantages there.

I don't know.

That would change our job considerably.

But if it could work that well, it removes you from having

to be in this capsule for a long period of time.

You're basically asleep.

And so, it relieves that angst and allows perhaps some...

some healing to occur.

We would need to rethink our job. And we might have to say:

"Here's how you disconnect."

(alarm signal)

- But what if there's an emergency, are they able

to just spring to life and take care of whatever situation is

at hand?

To have some human form being awake and take over and watch

over the others while the rest is sleeping.

It doesn't make sense.

To be able to save resources, you need to put all crew members

into hibernation.

(alarm signal)

What you need is a robot that looks after the humans

and once you reach the planet, you wake them up.

- But what happens when you get to Mars?

- You've flipped the switch back on automatically.

And suddenly, you wake up...

And you're now flooded with all the things that have happened

in the last nine months.

- Santa Claus, wait a minute, I recognize this handwritting!

It's yours! Hello?

- Health issues and death. Your family could have moved.

Geopolitical changes, wars and suddenly there you are.

You've got x months on the service of Mars

sand you are flooded with all this history which was

originally your history as well if you had been awake during

that period, you could have assimilated each of those

along the way.

- It's really hard to predict what happens to you

in this situation.

The animal models will not be able to cover the psychology

of a bear, I don't know.

- Someone who is just catching up on all these events and

going out and doing critical operations in a dangerous

environment is a recipe for disaster.

- But then, you've got to go back home.

Back to your loved ones and the things that you've missed.

So, how do we help them transition back?

- When I was up on the space station, there were some

discussion that maybe I would stay longer.

And yet, turned out we got about two extra weeks. And then,

we had to go home. - All right, well listen,

I don't have to keep you anymore, I know you're pretty

stressed to get stuff done. But you know what? You've done

a great job, you know. You've done so much. You've done

a ton of stuff. And I don't know how you could get more done

than you've done already, you know?

I know. But you have and you've done a lot of stuff.

And I don't know, it seems to me you've done more than any

normal mortal could ever expect to do.

You've crossed off certainly everything that I ever had on

my list, hoping that you'd be able to do. And...

- No, I'm not. I'm not. I'm not, I'm really not.

Um...and you know, it's... I think there's more to it

than just this. I mean, this is sort of like...this is the end

of an era. You've been doing this for a long time.

And, you know, I don't know what changes will happen after this,

but it's been a pretty amazing run that you've had. And...

you know, you've done an amazing job.

- The other day, I was by myself in the module sort of talking

out loud to myself, counting how many weeks we had left

on station.

I definitely kiss Tom, I miss my family. I've had a niece born

so=ince I've been up here who I haven't met yet.

My other neice and nephew are changing so fast and I miss

my family and friend dearly. But being up here is really special.

To feel like every single thing you're doing really matters.

And to go from having this closeness to this small team

environment, the shared experience, to going back

to Earth, much bigger worlds than the space station

and going back to regular life.

It's going to be complicated coming home.

- Undocking confirmed.

- It's tough to come back.

And the longer the disconnect, you're going to have more

difficulty reintegrating.

How do I prepare people for that?

- When you reconnect, you're assuming that the family's

somewhere along the way.

Are they at this place where you left?

Maybe they've changed a great deal.

Moved on to a new chapter. And they have had their own

mission and their own history along the way.

So, if you disconnect completely, you're going

to be not lost in space, but lost on Earth.

- Cady Coleman, NASA astronaut, home after her third flight

in space. Now having logged 179 days in space

on her three flights.

Flashing the broad smile that is her signature.

Also appearing to be in great shape, Josh?

- Yeah, Katie is smiling like she always does and uh,

the leaning to move her onto the chair. The crowd is now

clapping for her. There's some flowers they're about to give

her. But she looks extremely, extremely well.

- It's hard for me to look at you knowing that my kid

and my husband might see this. And to tell stories of thinking

about staying longer than our mission was going to be delayed

and stay longer.

I mean that was a simple one for me.

If I could have spent another six months, I would have

stayed in a minute.