Humans can survive in space
for over a year, but must take
much of earth’s habitat with them

Warning: this article may be disturbing to Trekkies. We all love a good story, but truth must always take precedence.

Have you ever wondered why, on classic episodes of Star Trek, when Captain Kirk and his fellow space travelers are beamed down to an alien surface, they can always walk around and breathe the air? That’s because they were breathing earth air inside a sound stage in Burbank, California. The chances that an asteroid or alien planet would support them are literally nil, even if engineers some day overcome the formidable challenges of building physical craft capable of reaching distant worlds before the human crew dies of old age.

Let’s get real. The only way to know scientifically about the body’s response to space travel is to see what happens to real astronauts. They have landed on the moon or space-walked in heavily-padded, thermally-controlled space suits, and they have lived in space shuttles and space stations for a year or more.

 Life After Microgravity: Astronauts Reflect on Post-Flight Recovery (NASA, 9 Sept 2025). NASA reporter Sumer Loggins speaks with real astronauts about their experiences living in space and returning to earth.

Space changes you. It strengthens some muscles, weakens others, shifts fluids within your body, and realigns your sense of balance. NASA’s Human Research Program works to understand—and sometimes even counter—those changes so astronauts can thrive on future deep space missions.

After landing, the astronauts, though smiling for the photos, describe feeling wobbly, unstable, unable to walk a straight line, and weak. “The weight and heaviness of things is surprising,” said Suni Williams after 9 months on the ISS. Though some of the aches and pains go away with exercise, and most fully recover, space is different. And that’s for the best case: orbiting inside the earth’s safety shield, the magnetic field, and living in a leak-proof container with plenty of earth air, food, and water available.

Effects of one year of extreme isolation in Antarctica on olfactory and gustatory functions (Klos et al, Nature Scientific Reports, 5 Sept 2025). This paper studied people who didn’t even leave earth, but lived in extreme isolation at a research station in Antarctica for a year, where sensory experiences were limited.

Gustatory and olfactory functions were assessed in 19 participants (39.2 ± 10.9 years) during two overwintering missions at Antarctic Concordia Station. Testing occurred six weeks pre-departure, three times during isolation, and six months post-isolation.

After their experiences, the scientists measured hyposmia (smell loss) that did not fully recover, and hyogeusia (taste loss) that recovered eventually. If those senses are affected by one year of extreme isolation, how much more would they be affected for long terms in space?

Biosphere 2’s latest mission: Learning how life first emerged on Earth – and how to make barren worlds habitable  (The Conversation, 23 Sept 2025). Like its earlier experiment, Biosphere 2 is a follow-up test of long-term confinement as would be required for extended space travel, such as a Mars mission or moon station.

For purposes of this article, we can skip over the poof spoof about life emerging on earth, and focus on the other part, “how to make barren worlds habitable,” particularly Mars. The “Matt Damon” problem refers to the actor’s quick thinking in the movie The Martian about how to survive before a rescue shape came. He found a way to grow potatoes from the stock on hand, fertilizing them with his own feces. Hey, it worked in the movie. Could you replicate that at home?

Matt Damon’s character would probably not have survived on the real Mars of today, because its rocklike surface, called regolith, is too full of salts and toxic chemicals such as perchlorate for potatoes, or most Earth-like plants, to grow.

At the Landscape Evolution Observatory, we are focusing on experiments in chambers that simulate Martian environments to ask what it will take to detoxify Mars-like soils so that microbes and plants can live there.

These articles did not deal with psychological problems that can arise during long-term isolation by small crews. What if a crew member develops severe mental illness, or becomes sociopathic? What if two or three members just cannot get along? We can envision a year together (which has been successfully done), but five years? Ten? A lifetime?

Our bodies were made for the earth. Safe on the ground under earth gravity, with a breathable atmosphere and protection from radiation, all of our physical needs and connections with other creatures can be satisfied. On earth, Spock can truly wish you to “live long and prosper.”

The Prime Directive in real space should remain, with only brief exceptions, “Stay home!”

The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s: but the earth hath he given to the children of men (Psalm 115:16).

See also earlier articles about the hazards of manned spaceflight:

1. 1. Don’t Add Mars to Your Bucket List (17 June 2024). Radiation, toxic soil, and other hazards.
   2. Astronauts Leave Earth at Their Peril (3 Nov 2022). Mutations and degenerative processes.
   3. Space Entropy: The SpaceX Stunt as an Argument Against UFOs (9 Feb 2018). Remember Elon Musk’s car stunt? The mannequin is likely completely disintegrated by now.
   4. Mars Radiation Would Fry Astronaut Brains (23 Sept 2006). 

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