Mission to Mars

Saw in the Globe & Mail newspaper,January 27/04,
page A-16,"The proposed U.S. expedition to mars will
require Humans to spend longer in close proximity
with each other in a confined capsule than ever before
,says consulting psychiatrist Dr.Raj Persaud.Psycholo-
gists will have to find new ways to select crews that
will not crack in close confinement.Evidence suggests
that the best crew may be Female.We may be celebrating
the first Woman on mars in a few decades.They tend to
be smaller than men,saving on fuel,water and oxygen.
Most important of all,they tend to be more tolerant of
their companians."On the same page was this:
Dr.Richard Cohen of Harvard-Massachusetts Institute of
Technology tells The San Jose Mercury News that living
in weightlessness can cause headaches,loss of
appetite,muscle atrophy and height gains of 6 to 8
centimeters.Without gravity,blood and other fluids move
toward the head and away from the lower parts of the
body.Astronauts develop very skinny legs called chicken
legs,this is not life threatening,but after a long
flight can make it difficult to walk.....Once we have
Space Colonies with artificial gravity this won't be a
problem,Space is for everyone-not just astronauts and
scientists.Sincerely,John Hadden(jfhadden@...