LONELY PLANET

You’re trapped in something the size of a camper van with three of your buddies for the next three years. The payoff is that you get to go to Mars, but at what cost? How do you look after your mental health on such a strange journey?

Crewed missions to Mars and beyond are still in the planning stage at NASA and private companies such as SpaceX. In 2015, then-administrator of NASA Charles Bolden pointed to 2030 as the date for a human landing on the red planet, and current US Vice-President Mike Pence wants boots on the surface of the Moon again in 2024. There’s rather more to it than