BigJim--

I liked your description of Mars Direct -- but I wondered, has anyone thought out the psychological issues that a crew might have to deal with I know there is a tendency to think that any crew selected will be able to muddle on through. But I wonder if there are ways to deal with the pressure of living in a can for a year with the same four people. Or five, or even six. (The more the better, because larger groups allow to diffuse tensions, but still). I do not think this makes a mission impossible, by the way, but I know that if you can't step outside to cool off or even have a smoke break most people go nuts. Not in the strictly clinical sense, here, but you wouldn't want someone getting royally irritated at his shipmate and unceremoniuosly chucking him out the airlock because he left the toothpaste on the sink.

Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars discusses this issue, but he postulates a mission of 100 people.

I keep thinking of theproblems the people that live and work in Antarctica have run into (there are many accounts of this). Now, they are much less isolated than people on a Mars trip, there are more of them, and you can step outside for a minute on the spur of the moment and cool off (no pun intended) when there are problems. Has there been any rigoruos work on the issue? Have the Russians done any?