The Importance of ISS to Mars-Part II
Abraham Maslow explains in his Hierarchy of Needs, “Anyone who attempts to make an emergency picture into a typical one, and who will measure all of man’s goals and desires by his behavior during extreme physiological deprivation, is certainly blind to many things. It is quite true that man lives by bread alone — when there is no bread”.
When the new plans by NASA changed the role of the International Space Station, what it did not change was the challenges and accomplishments of its crewmembers in their 6-month or even short space shuttle mission stays onboard. And they are all based on the basic needs of the humans in space exploration, helping man survive the best way they can when away from Earth.
In Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the four lower levels are grouped as one area of all physiological requirements, which is where the ISS comes in with astronauts traveling long-distance in space to Mars and the Moon. This level takes top priority regarding all basic animal needs–warmth, sex, water, hunger, thirst, chemical balance, sleeping, eating, and excretion–if any of these needs are not met, then the human’s physiological need will always rise above into the survival mode.
Consisting of the control of thoughts and behavior, negative feelings of discomfort or pain, and with the development of illness and sickness eventually developing, studies and experiments at the International Space Station are focusing on maintaining the human body’s ability to adapt in space on a positive level. We like our world, wherever it is, to be orderly and predictable where everything feels familiar and under control. Traveling in space should be no different, with a way to connect when space exploration is in full swing.
Things have changed a lot since man was first on the Moon. The International Space Station is highly advanced in its studies of the human body in spaces, supplying data on food grown at the ISS, medical studies of the human body, and so forth. Without studies and scientific experiments being done, man could not survive in space without serious harm to himself or herself.
Even if we do not go to Mars in the near future, we shall go somewhere, and we cannot pick at each planet as an individual thing. Space travel, regardless of the distance to it and the planet aimed at, will influence the body. The only differences will be the duration in space to get there, and the type of planet where human exploration will occur. Once space is built up in the spacecraft, or a physical/mental way to react to the long traveling, then the lengthy trips will become non-existent. At least the negative aspects, anyway!
This entry was posted on Friday, February 29th, 2008 at 7:18 am and is filed under Mission Objectives, Technical Concerns, The Gear to Get There. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
