http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/01/science/how-to-win-friends-and-influence-people-on-fake-mars.html 2016-09-05 10:00:15 How to Win Friends and Influence People (on Fake Mars) When six researchers were released after spending a year in a Mars-like habitat in Hawaii, they said they spent a lot of time trying to get along. === Amid the But when members of the group were released from their habitat on Sunday, they emphasized one key takeaway: They had spent a lot of time trying not to drive themselves or each other crazy. Two significant obstacles for the researchers were the physical and the emotional isolation. They began living at the habitat in August 2015 as part of the NASA-funded Experts say that travel to Mars may be People who are not working on Mars or in a Mars-like environment usually do not have this luxury, but according to Christiane Heinicke, a 30-year-old German physicist and engineer, democracy was a part of the personnel process on fake Mars. “During the selection process, we were trekking together in the Rocky Mountains,” Dr. Heinicke said in an email. “Afterwards, everyone voted anonymously for their preferred commander, which turned out to be Carmel,” as in Nobody wants to hear the words “emergency” and “Mars” in the same sentence, but in this case, a glitch in the workday helped temporarily repair group relations. “It really helps to have an emergency to work on together, because it reunites the group,” Dr. Heinicke told During their time in the habitat, the researchers had only small spaces to themselves, including a bed, a desk and some storage space. Aside from making sure you bring “good music” to drown out your colleagues’ noise in close quarters, it will help to nurture your own side projects and hobbies, Ms. Heinicke said. “Bring a lot of meaningful, stimulating projects to work, and be open to collaborate with others,” she said. “More generally: Be adaptable; the mission is very unlikely to be fully predictable.” Her colleague, Cyprien Verseux, If all else fails, This one is a universal truth on Earth as well as on Mars, but in the habitat, there were fewer opportunities to escape one another. Mr. Verseux said that “monotony, always in the same place, always with the same people” were among his biggest challenges while living in the domed research lab that the group called home, where the only respite from the cabin — going outside — required wearing a mock spacesuit. Another key takeaway from the mission, Ms. Heinicke said, is that not everyone is built to live in an extreme environment and in long-term isolation. “Some thrive and ‘infect’ each other with ideas and work on a large number of joint projects,” she said. “The others decay and progressively slip into a worse and worse mood. Obviously, if you want to send humans to Mars, you have to make sure your crew is composed of only the first kind.”