7 Unwritten Rules Every Concordia Crew Must Follow to Survive 9 Months Locked on White Mars

Concordia, on a frozen plateau in the middle of Antarctica, is technically more remote than the International Space Station. Every year up to fifteen people are locked in there for about nine months, at -80°C, with a third less oxygen and four months without the sun, while the European Space Agency studies them to prepare for Mars. These are the seven rules they live by, and the tiny habit that twenty years of research found matters most. Sources: European Space Agency, "Isolation studies in Antarctica" and "20 years of ice-cold research: extremophile tips for healthy living" (3,233 m, up to 15 crew, ~9 months isolation, darkness May to late August, fixed bedtimes, blue light, exercise, attitude and adaptation, Soyuz docking skills) ESA, "Ready for winter" / Concordia blog (no one can leave whatever the emergency; Midwinter celebrations; sleep problems) ESA, "Concordia caravan" (overland traverse ~1,100 km, ~10 days, ~150 tonnes) Institut polaire français (IPEV) and Italian PNRA (station history, two towers, 12–15 winterers) ESA, "Left out in the cold" (construction from 1999, first winter 2005, noisy and quiet towers, greywater recycling) CNN, "Antarctica and beyond" (2019): nearest neighbor Vostok ~600 km; a third less oxygen Experimental Physiology (2020), "'White Mars' – nearly two decades of biomedical research at the Antarctic Concordia station" (36 ESA projects) Khaleej Times (2022), interview with Concordia chef Marco Smerilli