Scientist trapped in Antarctica.

[worth1]

Seems like they're trapped with a nut or something.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgkm0k2j6edo

[DriftlessRoots]

Isn't this how "The Thing" started?

[karstopography]

About like being trapped in space. No easy or quick exit or way out and running away to safety isn’t an option with the isolation and harsh environment.

[worth1]

Living and working in Pruedhoe Bay Alaska was like living on the moon.
You couldn't go outside for long or you would literally freeze to death.
I've heard guys on the radio begging for security to come get them because their truck broke down.

[JRinPA]

Well.
The makeup of the South African staffers has surely changed a lot since 1959.

Back then it was 10 white guys with no entertainment but playing cards and board games. A strict chain of command. Like on a very long submarine patrol.

Certainly a lot different than today.

[bower]

It's just like your basic mission to mars. Nobody knows they will crack until it happens.
As the article says, there have been other incidents over the years in spite of all the screening of participants. A stabbing at the Russian station, sounds like that was the worst.
The kind of small irritations they describe are probably common, but most of the people involved can handle it.
There's no formula like "ten white guys" that's going to work any better. You need people who can take isolation, and people who can deal with their feelings better than average. They might also screen the group, by giving them a month in confinement with each other, before heading out on the 'mission'.
Still IMO there will be some small percentage of trips like this where someone loses it, no matter how well screened.
Another good reason not to go to Mars - besides having your muscles and bones melt. Ooey gooey fun.

[worth1]

They stopped letting people stay past 6 weeks in Pruedhoe Bay Alaska because people were going crackers.

[JRinPA]

Back in the day there was no way to get a rescue in. People were stuck there for months with just nothing to do. And they knew this beforehand. If anything did happen, it was very rarely reported. It could be covered up easily.

Today with all the internet available they are still in touch with the world. With men and women working together there are going to be sexual relationships. In such a small population group, that will cause problems that simply couldn't occur in the old days.

[karstopography]

I think it would be easier to be on a nuclear submarine hidden in the ocean for months than be on an Antarctica Research Station for the same amount of time, but I’ve done neither so it’s hard to know.

On a Nuclear Submarine there’s a mission, a role, an expectation of professionalism and enforced discipline, and life itself depends on people pulling together and each doing their part. Maybe that is not at all the reality, no way to know other than being on a sub or knowing someone that has.

An Antarctic station would have people that all have not been through the same basic training and maybe the chain of command is more nebulous or murky. I would guess there’s significant downtime and a percentage of bored people find ways to make life miserable for everyone else.

The USN, including the submarine fleet, is integrated, there’s hundreds of female submariners, and I understand there are pregnancies that occur, the timing is such that the pregnancy began during deployment. Put young men and women together for long periods without relief and things are bound happen, even in a highly disciplined environment of a Nuclear Submarine. Imagine the same scenario, but without the same highly enforced discipline.

[bower]

Relationships with people you're in the same sardine can, are inevitable. Of some kind.
From a military perspective, the only real issue is whether the relationship has a negative effect on your mission. If it doesn't affect the core goals, it isn't a negative.
I don't know of a case where a bonding type relationship was negative to the mission aims, and the same question applies to these arctic missions. What is clear though is that non-bonding or divisive relationships, where parties are out of agreement, are a hazard.

If you had equal numbers of men and women, some attractions are bound to occur.
Some men are very focused on their work, some women also are simply focused on their work.

The problem seems to be when you have one or more women present, and an "alpha male" type who gets his self esteem from being an attraction to the ladies. Except that might not be the case. Then he can't handle that it isn't going his way. In a sardine can of some kind.
I believe that the troublemakers in these situations are almost inevitably male, with the defect of "alpha male" preconceptions.
Not that women can't lose their marbles if not suited to the stress of the situation, and be just as bad.
IMO it comes down to screening for personality traits.
I don't see anything wrong with the positive bonding relationships that occur regardless of sexuality. This is not a bar, that people went to looking for a hookup. They're at work. All kinds of bonding in a tight ship.
The bigger problem is predator/prey dynamics when you get these alpha types who don't see their female colleagues as equals.

[worth1]

There was a guy that was married that got mad at me for being friends with an attractive woman in Pruedhoe Bay Alaska.
This idiot was a real jerk and rest assured she didn't want anything to do with him.
There weren't many women there and I was friends with several.
No sexual relationships with any of them it was strictly friendship talking about cooking and gardening.
But the other idiots were really jealous of me especially because my look is what one would call scraggly.

[worth1]

I remember us talking about a serial killer loose in Pruedhoe Bay.
There wasn't one but it was something to discuss for entertainment.
Sorta like the Agatha Christie stories.
The there was finding a large amount of cash and how we would get it back.
I mentioned all we need is a simple plan.
Not seeing the movie A Simple Plan.
On guy goes oh God no.
Not a simple plan haven't you seen the movie.