Out of this world: Scientists have found who should NOT go to Mars

If you are called 'out of this world', the initial euphoria of the idea that you are unique may quickly subside after a thought that you just may have been politely told that you don't adapt well to situations normally considered within the possible ranges of human agreeability.

Plainly, out of this world can also mean a little weird sometimes. Just sometimes.

But in order to survive on Mars, a literal out-of-the-world situation, you'd need some truly serious skills and a certain type of personality.

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Researchers from George Mason University in Virginia in the US have run computer simulations of up to 28 years of a human colony living on Mars. And they say they've stumbled upon a personality type that is unlikely to survive during the attempt to colonise the red planet.

The researchers also say that the ideal number of people living in this colony would be 22.

The study, as reported by Metro, says, "Establishing a human settlement on Mars is an incredibly complex engineering problem. The inhospitable nature of the Martian environment requires any habitat to be largely self-sustaining."

"Beyond mining a few basic minerals and water, the colonisers will be dependent on Earth resupply and replenishment of necessities via technological means, [such as] splitting Martian water into oxygen for breathing and hydrogen for fuel," it added.

"Beyond the technical and engineering challenges, future colonists will also face psychological and human behaviour challenges. Our goal is to better understand the behavioral and psychological interactions of future Martian colonists."

For their study, the researchers assumed that the necessary things to survive on Mars would be supplied.

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Then they considered the survival of four personality types: neurotic, reactive, social and agreeable.

The simulation considered the interaction between the different personality types in normal situations as well as in the events of mishaps like accidents and delays in supplies from Earth.

The researchers reportedly found that colonists with agreeable personalities were most likely to cope with the ups and downs of life on Mars. While those individuals characterised under the 'neurotic' personality type were considered least likely to survive.

So if you think you have an insanely unique personality, to put it politely, you shouldn't go to Mars. But if you go anyway, you may just have the benefit of boasting of having 'out of the (martian) world' persona, who knows?

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