Isolation. Isolation will likely be inevitable is early deep space missions. Space is vast and distances to other planets are bafflingly large. And, problems of stress, crew health, and crew interactions remain unsolved problems. Germs, disease and bacteria remain health problems with isolation. Communication and many other human factors are also unsolved problems with isolation in space flight.

Distance from earth. The distances that humans will need to traverse to go to places like mars and beyond are vast. No human has traveled so far and for so long while isolated in a small spacecraft. Our current propulsion technologies are primitive and wholly inadequate to achieve speeds that would allow for shorter travel times to mars and beyond. Round trip times remain over 24 months at the very least. And, the distance of other celestial bodies are much more. So, our technology would need to leap ahead to shorten these vast travel times or to make the travel less harmful to the human body.

Hostile environments. Finally, hostile and confined spaces. That will be very hard to overcome. Our current technology limits the size of any spacecraft. And, rocket power limits us to very small payloads to be lifted into space. This severely curtails the size of any trans mars ships. Again, bacteria, germs, and disease pose threats to human health in confined spaces. They can evolve rapidly to very harmful strains in the micro-gravity of space. And, confined spaces may bring conflict and unearth many disagreements among the crew. Natural human traits may allow hostility and violence onboard.

Hector Vladimir 2024