| Making
Mars a reality
By Greg
Aullman
April 24, 2009 | As a boy Scott Bates
was raised on a steady diet of fantastic space voyages.
From “Star Wars” to “Star Trek” he could race across
the stars uncovering galactic conspiracies, meeting
alien races, without sacrificing the comforts of his
own bed. Like many he dreamed of one day traveling at
warp speed, or at least fast enough to get to the moon.
The burgeoning space programs across the globe gave
hope to the childhood dreams of millions. It seemed
that science fiction and reality were inching closer
and closer to melding into one glorious journey for
mankind.
The older Bates got the more he realized
that his dreams of one day working in space were fading.
The chances of actually making it into space as an astronaut
were going to be harder to realize than making it as
a professional baseball player. The rapid improvements
of the early space race seemed to change to a stale
questioning of the use of having a space program at
all. The journey to the moon would slump from the beginning
of our hopes of inter-galactic travel to one of the
few bright spots.
Ironically enough, moving farther
away from the space needle of Seattle and nearer to
the peaks of the Rocky Mountains would bring Utah State
University professor Dr. Bates closer to his boyhood
dreams than he thought possible.
With warp speed still an undiscovered
commodity, and the power of hypothetical worm holes
eluding scientists, the harsh realities of space travel
set in. While traveling to other galaxies or solar systems
is recognized as a challenge that will likely continue
to surpass current technological capabilities, even
the closer voyages are posing challenges that scientists
seek to account and plan for. Imagine being stuck with
a roommate you hate. Imagine being homesick and yet
having positively no chance of hastening your return
to not only home, but the only planet you have ever
known. Imagine traveling thousands of miles into space
and suddenly realizing that you may suffer from claustrophobia.
Scientists realize that space travel
requires not only the proper physical technologies to
ensure survival in the lifeless environments encountered
but also humans to operate those technologies. These
humans are not, and cannot be treated like the machines
they work on because if they snap, then billions of
dollars and years of planning could disappear in one
gigantic fireball.
The journey Bates took towards space
studies began in his words as, “Accidental I went to
Colorado State for the social program, which is actually
an environmental and social program.”
After earning his bachelor’s from
Whitman College, and his master’s at Western Washington
University, Bates completed his studies by earning his
doctorate in experimental psychology.
Experimental psychology is a research-study-based
approach to understanding or explaining human behavior.
Experimental psychology could be compared to applied
psychology, which seeks to turn acquired knowledge onto
solving real-world problems, or to clinical psychology
which aims to treat mental illnesses.
Bates’ schooling helped him realize
that he had an affinity for the normally despised subject
of statistics. Working on statistics is one of the things
that USU assistant professor Michael Twohig says sets
him apart as a researcher. Bates spent a full year of
his collegiate studies doing statistics. Most students
hope to get through statistics as soon as possible or
find courses that replace the meticulous learning required.
Bates’ interest in statistics may be tied to his hobby
of playing fantasy baseball. For years he would delve
deep into the numbers of earned-run average (ERA), on
base average (OBA), slugging average (SLG) and even
the mythical OPS (OBA plus SLG). His hobby helped him
keep up with numbers as his learning to balance injuries,
trades and all-star personalities to build powerhouse
fantasy teams sharpened his statistic skills for his
later studies in deviance prevention and eventually
space research.
Going to Colorado State ended up
having more benefits than just learning the trade that
would bring him closer to his goals. While there he
would meet his wife and fellow Utah State University
assistant professor Melanie M. Domenech Rodriguez. Bates
and his wife spend at least part of their time working
in preventative research, in addition to their teaching
and other research studies they are kept busy raising
two young daughters.
USU would finally provide Bates the
chance to merge his skills with his interests and education.
The Space Dynamics Lab (SDL) which is tied to NASA since
the Electro-Dynamics Laboratories (EDL) was built on
the USU campus in 1959. Originally the Space Dynamics
Lab was two separate labs, the EDL located at USU and
the Upper Air Research Laboratory (UARL) based at the
University of Utah. In 1970 the UARL relocated to USU’s
campus, and in 1982 the two were joined together to
create the Space Dynamics Lab. In addition to the work
the SDL has done with NASA, they have also collaborated
on projects with the Russian Ministry of Defense, which
led to the eventual project currently being researched,
the ground-breaking 500-day Mars mission.
The Mars mission posed the need for
a mentally stable environment in which astronauts would
be able to not only go to Mars, but endure the rest
of the trip back home.
Bates said he was approached and
asked to study the, “Potential non-nutritive psychological
benefits to growing plants.” He initially resisted saying
that he didn’t know anything about the topic. The powers
that be responded that nobody knows anything about plants
in space, and his job would essentially be to “Assess
if there is a benefit and what that benefit would be.”
He was told that if he did the studies he would quickly
become the world expert.
Faced with a monumental task Bates
began interviewing current and former astronauts hoping
to uncover some clue as to what they needed. Did plant
color matter? Does size matter? He was told that for
food it was estimated the astronauts would be able to
get one salad roughly every 30 days. His major research
question right now is do astronauts seek out the plants
for more than just watering or care reasons?
Bates has some tips for hoping to
follow in his footsteps, “I don’t think you can set
out and intend to do NASA.” He felt that the field of
environmental psychology would continue to grow because,
“We’ve messed up our planet deeply.” He notes the shift
in societal attitudes about the climate and in global
concerns regarding the health of our planet and how
that will affect us. He also notes that most environmental
psychologists do not identify themselves as such until
something pushes them in that direction. Even Bates
would not identify himself as an environmental psychologist
until he began his work on the space mission. Environmental
psychology is recognized under the American Psychological
Association (APA) accreditation and has its own division
of the APA. According to the APA.org website, division
34, known better as population and environmental psychology,
has the statement of, “Population and Environmental
Psychology members conduct research and advance theory
to improve interactions between human behavior and environment
and population.”
Heeding Bates advise is important.
We don’t always know the path that our future will take
us. Bates parlayed his love of helping others into a
career that put him in a position to fulfill his dream.
He has excelled in his teaching career, earning the
Early Career Teaching Excellence Award from the APA,
a nomination for Carnegie Professor of the Year, teacher
of the year for the Emma Eccles Jones college of Education
and Human Services, and a finalist for the Robins Award
for USU professor of the year. Bates has shown that
if you are willing to work at what you do, or as Confucius
said, “Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart,”
then you will achieve even those dreams written off
years ago.
Bates still sits in awe at the various
meetings that he attends, “There is a meeting where
someone finally realizes that they made it, and that
(the Johnson Space Center) was it.”
In retrospect Dr. Bates said, “If
I could go back and tell my 12-year-old self what I
was doing now, my head would explode.”
RM
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