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SCIENCETuesday 6 October 2015
How to prepare for Mars? NASA consults Navy sub force
MICHAEL MELIA cursors of when a team is
about to change, that’s
Associated Press particularly what we’re
hoping for,” said Jerry
GROTON, Connecticut Lamb, the lab’s technical
director.
(AP) — As NASA contem- The experiment with NASA
is expected to begin in Jan-
plates a manned voyage uary or February. The space
agency is taking a bigger
to Mars and the effects interest in human behavior
issues as it pursues the ca-
missions deeper into space pability to send humans to
an asteroid by 2025 and to
could have on astronauts, Mars in the 2030s.
NASA is using a capsule
it’s tapping research from about the size of a two-
bedroom apartment at the
another outfit with experi- Johnson Space Center in
Houston to study how as-
ence sending people to tronauts might perform and
behave during lengthy mis-
the deep: the U.S. Navy sions. Four volunteers at a
time live and work for 30
submarine force. days at a time aboard the
habitat, known as the Hu-
The space agency is work- man Exploration Research
Analog, which includes an
ing with a military labora- airlock and is supported by
a small version of mission
tory at the submarine base control. Video and audio
recordings of the subjects
in Groton, Connecticut, to from the experiment with
the Navy lab will be sent to
measure how teams cope scientists in Connecticut for
their analysis.q
with stress during month-
long simulations of space
flight.
While one travels through
outer space and the other This Nov. 15, 2013 photo released by NASA shows the three-story Human Exploration Research
Analog habitat at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
the ocean’s depths, as-
Associated Press
tronauts and submariners
face many of the same told The Associated Press. submarine force, began dialogue, critical thinking
“When you stick people to- examining ways to make and decision-making and
challenges. Isolated for gether for a long period of tactical teams work to- developed a way to as-
time, how are they going gether better. sess how teams respond to
long stretches of time, they to do?” The Navy research Through observation of setbacks. The research was
that piqued NASA’s inter- submarine crews, the made available more than
rely on crewmates for their est started about five years Navy scientists developed a year ago to submarines’
ago when the Groton- a way to evaluate how commanding officers, but it
lives in remote, inhospitable based Naval Submarine teams are performing. The has not yet been institution-
Medical Research Labora- study singled out important alized by the Navy.
environments. tory, at the request of the team practices including “If this tool can identify pre-
“We have a shared interest
with the Navy in team re-
silience,” Brandon Vessey,
a scientist with NASA’s hu-
man research program,
Desert tortoise no longer candidate for federal protection
By ASTRID GALVAN to monitor the tortoises. tortoise population steady, ting is difficult. It takes a lon- that are unenforceable
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — The However the current mod- and many say the Fish and and won’t provide ade-
Sonoran desert tortoise is eling in science demon- Wildlife Service made the ger time,” Kamps said. quate protection.
not at risk for extinction and strates that there’s virtually right call. The Sonoran des- Jones said her organization
will no longer be listed as a no probability of extinction ert tortoise will still receive Conservationists worry would closely look at the
candidate for Endangered over the next decade,” protections from the state Fish and Wildlife’s decision
Species Act protections, spokesman Jeff Humphrey as a “species of greatest about the future of the des- and hasn’t ruled out legal
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife said. conservation need.” action.
Service announced Mon- The Sonoran desert tor- Spencer Kamps, vice presi- ert tortoise. Steve Trussell, executive di-
day. toise became a candi- dent for legislative affairs rector of the Arizona Rock
The agency says the de- date for protections under for the Homebuilders Asso- Taylor Jones, an endan- Products Association, an
cision is partly because the Endangered Species ciation of Central Arizona, organization that repre-
of the commitments vari- Act in 2010 after the Fish said the ESA designation gered species advocate sents aggregate materials
ous government agencies and Wildlife Service found would have negatively im- in the state, applauded the
have made to protect the that increasing population pacted housing develop- with WildEarth Guardians, decision.
animal in Arizona. There are growth in the Southwest ment. “We operate wherever
about 470,000 to 970,000 and northern Mexico was “Any endangered species questioned the Fish and there’s development, so
adult desert tortoises in the threatening the animal’s listing costs time and mon- it could have potentially,
U.S. and Mexico. habitat. ey. Not to say that it isn’t Wildlife assessment and among other things, had a
“We and our federal and But local conservation ef- warranted but it does cost major impact on our indus-
state partners will continue forts have helped keep the us time and money. Permit- whether local and federal try,” Trussell said.q
organizations will be truly
committed to protecting
the tortoise.
“If a conservation agree-
ment will accomplish that
goal then that’s awesome
we’re all for that,” she said,
noting the group does not
want to see local voluntary
conservation agreements
