New York Post, Sunday, November 15, 2020
nypost.com
POSTSCRIPT Science
by REED TUCKER
C
onTrary to what
we’ve seen in movies
like “The Martian,”
the greatest danger to
early explorers of the
red planet might not
be massive dust
storms and toxic cos-
mic rays. Instead, it’s more likely
the threat of being driven to near
insanity by a crew mate’s loud
music or her habit of leaving
dirty dishes in the sink.
A manned mission to Mars is the
next great frontier to be conquered
in space (multiple are planned to
blast off in the next two decades),
and this trip is going to require a dif-
ferent kind of astronaut.
Gone are the days of recruiting
cocky, adrenaline-junkie types —
living embodiments of “The Right
Stuff ” — as with the 1960s American
space program. Space agencies these
days will need a person who is psy-
chologically strong enough to sur-
vive the long trip to Mars and the
isolating experience of being there.
What kind of person is that? The
new movie “Red Heaven” offers a
look at six of them. The documen-
tary is part of the DOC NYC film
festival and can be viewed online at
docnyc.net until Nov. 19.
The film follows six volunteers
who are quarantined in a small habi-
tat for an entire year in order to sim-
ulate living conditions on Mars. The
experience devolved into a living
nightmare.T
HE NASA-sponsored experi-
ment was known as the Hawaii
Space Exploration Analog and
Simulation (HI-SEAS) and
took place in a 1,200-square-foot
dome built atop the rocky face of
Hawaii’s Mauna Loa volcano, 8,000
feet above sea level and miles from
civilization.
Filmmakers Lauren DeFilippo and
Katherine Gorringe were fascinated
by the exercise. They became deter-
mined to arm the participants with
cameras before they entered isola-
tion in August 2015.
“There were a number of filmmak-
ers and bigger broadcasters circling
around, and we were naive enough
to immerse ourselves in the experi-ence and get to know everyone at an
early stage,” DeFilippo told The
Post.
The legwork paid off and the film
was approved. They raised some of
the funds needed on Kickstarter.
DeFilippo and Gorringe were
there as the six participants entered
the habitat, enjoying their last in-
person contact with other humans
for a full 365 days.
All of the volunteers were in their
30s and experts in different scien-
tific fields: German geophysicist
Christiane Heinicke, French astrobi-
ologist Cyprien Verseux and the
Americans, space architect Tristan
Bassingthwaighte, physician Sheyna
Gifford, soil scientist Carmel John-
ston, and engineer Andrzej Stewart.
“I was probably the one who got
into it the most on accident,” Bas-
singthwaighte told The Post. “I was
abroad at the time doing a grad-
school exchange program in China.
I had always wanted to be an astro-
naut. I found the blog about HI-
SEAS and applied on a lark. I didn’t
know HI-SEAS existed, then four
months later, I was in it.”
In addition to scientific knowl-
edge, potential participants were
screened for a psychological profile
that was best suited for the unique
life in the dome. They had to tolerate
both extreme stress and extreme
boredom.
“I was pretty sure that I would have
a good chance of withstanding, but
you can never know for sure,” Hei-
nicke told The Post. “We were warned
that the stress would be very high, but
what does that mean? We just entered
and learned along the way.”
The setup certainly recalls a real-
ity show, but the directors were wor-
ried that the subjects might not turn
out to be particularly compelling.
“As filmmakers you’re always
looking for human drama, and they
were specifically selected for not be-
ing dramatic people,” Gorringe told
The Post. “But once we got to know
them, human drama is always there,
even with people who aren’t going
to be over dramatic.”
Living on top of five other stran-
gers day after day might bring out
the worst in all of us. The habitat had
a small living room, 1.5 bathrooms,
a galley kitchen and tiny living quar-
ters for each of the six up a flight ofstairs. Power came via solar panel,
water via large storage tanks outside.
Comforts were few. A timer limited
the length of their hot showers and
meals were assembled from freeze-
dried foods, such as ham and cauli-
flower. The crew also grew salad
greens inside the dome, munching
on a leaf or two every few weeks.
Exercise was required, and the
group members worked out on the
dome’s treadmill or performed im-
provised muscle-building activities,
such as walking up and down the
stairs carrying a heavy pack.
The crew completed various tasks
each day. They experimented withplants or carried out geological
studies. There were also household
chores to do, such as washing
clothes and dishes.
In their free time, they read, played
games or music, or in Bassingth-
waighte’s case, created T-shirt de-
signs that he now sells on Etsy under
DeepSpaceStore.
Privacy and sound-proofing were
virtually nonexistent. No phones, no
Internet, no contact with the outside
world, beyond e-mail (which had a 20-
minute lag, like on Mars) and a weekly
news summary provided by NASA.
The crew was allowed to exit the
habitat just twice a week. Theystrapped on heavy space suits and
exited through the simulated airlock
to explore the desolate terrain
around them.
“We realized the antagonist of the
film is the wall of the dome,” Gor-
ringe says, “and time.”
To measure their moods, the par-
ticipants were required to fill out nu-
merous surveys a day. A few weeks
in, the vibe was rated excellent.
“Everyone was trying to be good
and be nice to everyone and try to es-
tablish a good relationship, setting a
positive tone for the whole mission,”
says Heinicke, who now works at the
Center of Applied Space TechnologyWhen six scientists moved into a dome that simulated the Red
HI-SEAS crew
members Cyprien
Verseux (near left)
and Christiane
Heinicke started a
relationship in the
dome — when they
weren’t out in their
space suits (right)
navigating the rugged
Christiane Heinicke (3); Brendan Hall Hawaiian terrain.Two members of the HI-SEAS crew trek
outside their isolated Hawaiian dome in
space suits, simulating the Mars
landscape, as seen in the “Red Heaven”
documentary directed by Lauren
DeFilippo and Katherine Gorringe.The NASA-
sponsored HI-
SEAS crew (left,
clockwise from
top left): Carmel
Johnston, Tristan
Bassingthwaighte,
Sheyna Gifford,
Andrzej Stewart,
Christiane
Heinicke and
Cyprien Verseux.