The world has always shown a great deal of interest in space. But with this dream of space travel comes much work. As JFK put it, “ We choose to go to the moon and do these other things in this decade, not because they are easy, but because they are hard”. Space agencies all over the world have been working towards getting us closer and closer to the unknown. We want to know more about what is beyond our planet and in order to do so we are looking at every possible scenario. One of the most current missions holding our interest is the mission to Mars. Of all of the possible things that could go wrong on a mission to Mars, the effects on the minds of astronauts may be the biggest risk factor of them all.
Although the psychological effects of living in space have not been clearly analyzed, studies such as the Mars500 project has taught us a lot about what space travel could be like. The Mars500 project took place at Moscow’s Institute of Biomedical Problems (IBMP) in February of 2012. The Mars500 crew was confined into a small space in order to feel as if they were on Mars. The project included a serious of tests that the crew were to face. In order to provide a successful trip to Mars projects such as the Mars500 are very important for they are what help prepare us in a way that will allow for such missions to be possible.
According to an article written by Chris Chambers, there are at least four psychological challenges that astronauts will face during long durations of space travel. Those four challenges include social Isolation, Confinement, Loss of privacy, and lack of mental health services. Some of these factors can lead to motivational decline, fatigue, insomnia, headaches, digestive problems, and social tensions. Strained crew relations, heightened friction, and social conflict are also expected from isolation.
While the world may love the idea of space travel, it takes a certain kind of person or crew to be able to pull it off. The Mars500 Project showed examples of what confinement can come to. Being in such a small space for a long duration of time will start to break you down. After a couple of weeks the crew may begin to wonder what they have gotten themselves into. The book Packing for Mars goes into describe a time where two men contributing to the project got into a fist fight. Unlike crews on the International Space Station, the crew enroute to Mars cannot maintain direct contact with their loved ones and are not steadily supplied with replacement crews, food, or even gifts. Isolation and confinement pose the greatest challenge for the crew.
As a hole, the experiences of Russian and US long duration spaceflights has revealed the need for psychological countermeasures to support crews during their spacetravles. One method currently being developed is an attempt to select psychologically fit crew members. NASA will try to avoid psychologically ill or unstable applicants in hopes of being able to maintain healthier crew members.
The Behavior and Performance group at NASA is currently validating a psychological astronaut selection method. These validation studies have discovered several personality variables such as agreeableness, conscientiousness, empathy, sociability, and flexibility, among others are the key traits needed to maintain a successful performance under stressful conditions. These key traits will also allow the astronauts to show teamwork, group living, motivation, and good decision-making for longer periods of time. Psychological training will me be of high priority. The training will focus on developing skills for coping with the stressors of the space flight environment and for interacting with fellow crew members. The training also deals with leadership styles, multicultural issues, working in an isolated and confined environment, and communicating with team members. In-flight psychological support involves ground-based monitoring by flight psychologists and psychiatrists, in-flight entertainment (such as videos, books, games, and special items), leisure activities, and opportunities to communicate with the ground.
space allows us to not only look outwards, but to also look inwards. We are living in a science fiction future and every day we are learning about even more things that we can do. As we do these things we are aspiring the next generation. People have an inherit love for space. I believe that if we keep our love for space alive and continue to let our knowledge and curiosity grow, we will do great things.
Whoops! Almost forgot to include my work cited.
Anthony Rivas. “The Psychological Effects Of A Year In Space.” Medical Daily. 2015. Web. 18 Apr. 2016.
Chambers, Chris. “Mars One: The Psychology of Isolation, Confinement and 24-hour Big Brother | Chris Chambers.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 2013. Web. 18 Apr. 2016.
Roach, Mary. Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void. New York: W.W. Norton, 2010. Print.
(I hope this helps! also if can brainliest?)