The "ship", and its living quarters, was huge by NASA standards, by American housing standards, minuscule. And, it would never move as much as a centimeter from the Arizona dessert on which it stood, let alone the 400 million + kilometers that the real vehicle would travel on its way to Mars and back. Nicknamed by its inhabitants as The Exercise - an obvious, and bad pun on the name of Captain Kirk's famous starship - it wasn't even a true replica of the real thing. It had no real functions, although it did have thousands of computer-simulated ones, and it was actually substantially larger than the real interplanetary vehicle that NASA would send to Mars 15 years hence. What it was, in fact, was a big psychological experimental apparatus designed to house 12 people for 18 months, three months short of the anticipated actual time for a round trip to the Red Planet.
Matthew Leonard, 31, single, and three years past earning his Ph.D. in geology signed on to this "mission", as did the 11 others, with the full knowledge that its purpose was to study how a group of people, largely unknown to each other, would fare cooped up in tight quarters for a year and half, often with long stretches of boredom with little to do. How would they form productive working relationships? What about rivalries or antagonistic relationships, or close friendships? Would cliques develop? These, and similar questions, had been made clear right at the beginning of the recruitment efforts for the mission. What Matthew and his fellow "crew" didn't know was that one of the main questions of interest to NASA's team of social scientists was what the men and women would do with their sexual desires and needs over such an extended period of time under the conditions in which none of the people had already existing romantic or sexual relationships with each other. How would they work out possible tensions or difficulties? Or, would they behave like over-sexed characters in a soap opera where sexual intrigue becomes the predominant theme in everyone's life?
At the moment, though, Matthew's thoughts were far from anything erotic. Sitting in his small cabin, just three hours into Day 1, he was full of the excitement of the adventure he had chosen, but anxious about his ability to survive what clearly would be an extraordinary ordeal. He was thankful that NASA had provided each person with their own private cabin, though just over two meters square with shard restrooms elsewhere. This was to be his home for 18 months. After three months of training, it now came down to this - the long ordeal. Matthew had particularly worried about his adjustments to living with 11 others. Since his break up two years ago with his girlfriend, Mandy, Matthew had been living alone, in his own apartment, interacting mostly with his coworkers at the earthquake research center where he had been working for several years. This was going to be quite a different experience!
The instructions from "mission control" (i.e., the NASA social scientists running the experiment) had been for each of the crew to just relax in their quarters for a couple of hours, prior to the initial all-crew meeting at which the 7 men and 5 women would begin their first daily schedule of duties for the shift to which they were assigned. Matthew left his cabin walking the short distance to the day room - that doubled as mess hall, lounge, and just about everything else - his mind full of the excitement of a young man off on an adventure.
Matthew Leonard, 31, single, and three years past earning his Ph.D. in geology signed on to this "mission", as did the 11 others, with the full knowledge that its purpose was to study how a group of people, largely unknown to each other, would fare cooped up in tight quarters for a year and half, often with long stretches of boredom with little to do. How would they form productive working relationships? What about rivalries or antagonistic relationships, or close friendships? Would cliques develop? These, and similar questions, had been made clear right at the beginning of the recruitment efforts for the mission. What Matthew and his fellow "crew" didn't know was that one of the main questions of interest to NASA's team of social scientists was what the men and women would do with their sexual desires and needs over such an extended period of time under the conditions in which none of the people had already existing romantic or sexual relationships with each other. How would they work out possible tensions or difficulties? Or, would they behave like over-sexed characters in a soap opera where sexual intrigue becomes the predominant theme in everyone's life?
At the moment, though, Matthew's thoughts were far from anything erotic. Sitting in his small cabin, just three hours into Day 1, he was full of the excitement of the adventure he had chosen, but anxious about his ability to survive what clearly would be an extraordinary ordeal. He was thankful that NASA had provided each person with their own private cabin, though just over two meters square with shard restrooms elsewhere. This was to be his home for 18 months. After three months of training, it now came down to this - the long ordeal. Matthew had particularly worried about his adjustments to living with 11 others. Since his break up two years ago with his girlfriend, Mandy, Matthew had been living alone, in his own apartment, interacting mostly with his coworkers at the earthquake research center where he had been working for several years. This was going to be quite a different experience!
The instructions from "mission control" (i.e., the NASA social scientists running the experiment) had been for each of the crew to just relax in their quarters for a couple of hours, prior to the initial all-crew meeting at which the 7 men and 5 women would begin their first daily schedule of duties for the shift to which they were assigned. Matthew left his cabin walking the short distance to the day room - that doubled as mess hall, lounge, and just about everything else - his mind full of the excitement of a young man off on an adventure.
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