Learning to Live on Mars

Summary: While the mission control team for the Phoenix lander was making scientific discoveries on Mars, they were also the subject of a study about how humans cope with living on Mars time. The study reveals how future explorers may be affected by days that do not follow a 24-hour clock.

Since the beginning of August, NASA's Mars rover, Curiosity, has been roaming all over the distant planet learning as much as it can about the martian terrain. The mission control team back on Earth has also learned what it may be like on Mars by trying to live and work on a martian day, which is about 40 minutes longer than an Earth day. This 'day' length causes havoc with the internal 24-hour body clock but researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) have developed and tested a fatigue management program which is successful at controlling this space-age jetlag. The results of the study will be published in the October print issue of SLEEP.