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Thread: How to stop going stir crazy on a long space journey

  1. #16
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    Talking

    Dear Penthouse,

    You'll never believe what happened to me... I was on a mission to Mars and I had just strapped down for a zero-gravity nap when...

    [insert funky 70's beat]

  2. #17
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    Wink how to add excitement to a long space-journey....

    You could add the 'Survivor' aspect: Twelve astronauts, only six will arive on Mars.....

    Every six months, one person is voted out of the airlock.....
    The darkness inside me is a lot scarier than the darkness out there....

  3. #18
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    Hey, that's an idea. I'm sure that by selling the audiovisual rights of such an emission, the NASA could get enough money for the space programm.
    "Online vote! Wich astronaut will be airlocked this time??"
    "Now, stay tuned! After the hour-long ad, the airlocking sequence!! Watch the discarded astronaut fly out of the capsule! Only 8 remaining! Who'll win???"
    ....


    And I'd start looking for a planet to emigrate to...
    "The main difference between Trekkies and Manchester United fans is that Trekkies never trashed a train carriage. So why are the Trekkies the social outcasts?"
    Terry Pratchett

  4. #19
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    Originally posted by Dan Stack
    Dear Penthouse,

    You'll never believe what happened to me... I was on a mission to Mars and I had just strapped down for a zero-gravity nap when...

    [insert funky 70's beat]
    Oooh, straying into Captain Zymmer territory there Dan.
    Arise, arise, Riders of Theoden!
    Fell deed awake: fire and slaughter!
    Spear shall be shaken, shields be splintered,
    a sword-day, a red-day, ere the sun rises!
    Ride now, ride now! Ride to Gondor!

    Theoden King: The Return of the King

  5. #20
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    Gawd, I can be such a sick bastard when I put my mind to it.....

  6. #21
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    Cool

    Hey! Don't you post the rest of my fictional story letter!
    Anyhoo, just some random thoughts...

    "My philosophy is 'you don't need me to tell you how to play -- I'll just provide some rules and ideas to use and get out of your way.'"
    -- Monte Cook

    "Min/Maxing and munchkinism aren't problems with the game: they're problems with the players."
    -- excerpt from Guardians of Order's Role-Playing Game Manifesto

    A GENERATION KIKAIDA fan

    DISCLAIMER: I Am Not A Lawyer

  7. #22
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    Astronauts will start to have to eat their fellow astronauts...oh well, better than Tang
    Insert something clever

  8. #23
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    Perhaps they could setup a radio link Internet link
    ST: Star Charts Guru
    aka: The MapMaker


    <A HREF="http://users.tpg.com.au/dmsigley/sirsig"><IMG SRC=http://users.tpg.com.au/dmsigley/sirsig/images/Southern_Cross.jpg width="100" height="120"></A>

  9. #24
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    My gaming group had, once upon a time, decided that Survivor III should take place on the International Space Station. And yes, people would be thrown out airlocks. The tribe has spoken. ^_^

    Sadly, a radio internet link would suck... if you think your web pages take long to load up now, watch this: you click on a link, it takes 15 minutes for your request to reach Earth, a few seconds to connect to the server & find the page you're looking for, then another 15 minutes for the page to be sent to you at Mars. Damn Einstein.

    Multi-player online games would be even worse. "Who's the guy with the 900,000ms ping time!?" Besides, having six crewmembers high on adrenaline from FPS games in a tiny capsule is probably not a good idea anyhow.

    Email, on the other hand, would be slow but still effective. So PBEM RPGs are still good.

    For me, I'd pass the time on PBEMs, reading (eBooks to save mass, but a few dead tree books for personal reasons), writing, watching videos, listening to music... hey, hang on, I do all this stuff now. I guess I'd have to lay off the sword practice, though.

  10. #25
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    Zubrin's The Case for Mars discusses the topic of crew morale (and morals) during a Mars mission. His position (which I agree with) is that over the course of the history of human exploration we've had people who have survived far more difficult physical and emotional hardships with little ill effect. While the time-lag factor of communication would be severe by modern standards, being able to communicate with your family via same day means (e-mail and even taped video) is far better than the years delay during the age of sail for instance. Even now submariners are often cut off for months from home.

    Add to that the idea that virtually every book in print could be taken along in DVD format, newspapers, magazines and video could be sent out on a regular basis (given NASA's budget) and the not so small effect of being an (inter)national hero.

    He goes on to discuss optimal group size and skill make up. In fact, he uses Star Trek points of reference and argues that we'd need two "Scotties", general engineering types, and two "Spocks", general science types - no Kirks, Sulus or McCoys. There's also discussion of the possibility of current-tech gravity generation (tethers and spin), and lots of neato-techno discussion of how to go about it.

    If they get their "Scotties and Spocks" from a ST con then they don't have to worry about the shock of not "dating" for three years either as it wouldn't be such a big change - no?
    TK

  11. #26
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    Originally posted by toadkiller
    If they get their "Scotties and Spocks" from a ST con then they don't have to worry about the shock of not "dating" for three years either as it wouldn't be such a big change - no?
    Ow.
    tmutant

    Founder of the Evil Gamemasters Support Group. No, Really.

  12. #27
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    Given the right training and timeframe, what about the possibilities of married couples being sent? Long-term birth control would still be a must.
    Freedom is a package deal - with it comes responsibilities and consequences.<BR>
    <B>England forever!!! Scotland just a <i>wee</i> bit longer.</B>

  13. #28
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    Given the Rad levels, wouldn't the conception of a child be a rather bad idea - especially if they're gonna stick around on Mars for any given amount of time, especially with any walkies outside whatever habitat they set up. I'd imagine that the individual adults involved would likely leave some reproductive material behind for later conception if they'd like to have kiddies later.

    I dunno. Just a thought.

    Anyway, I've recently had a bout of cramped space myself - of the ill variety - and quite frankly, even being wildly delusional and feverish and having nothing I really had to do, I enjoyed it. I read many books, many many books, caught up on small hobbies I'd neglected, wrote a lot. Sure, the 103F crap sucked, but if I was hale and hearty... it would have been a blast.

    The Doc
    So you think, 'Might as well,
    Dance a Tango to Hell,
    at least I'll have Tangoed at all.'
    -- "Rent," Jonathan Larson

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