Surviving Extremes

In 1911 douglas Mawson sailed to the Antarctic. He travelled over the icecap with dog teams on a journey that ended in the tragic death of his two companions - and, remarkably, his own survival. In the 1990s American astronauts lived aboard Russia's Mir space station. They endured psychological isolation, the worst fire in space history and a collision with another spacecraft. Although almost a hundred years apart, the two journeys tell us a lot about the sort of personalities that will cope with a future mission to Mars.