Hurdles to long term space flight

[Damelon]

I read this article in the Economist that describes the psychological problems that could be encountered in long term space trips like the mission to Mars.

www.economist.com/science/displaystory. ... id=9401568

[Gil galad]

I certainly wouldnt volunteer to spend any amount of time stuck in small spaceship with other people, with the only alternative being death in an icy vacuum.

[The Laughing Man]

Yet Dr Kanas's study also uncovered a more worrying finding. As with his Mir study, and by all six of his measures, the ISS crew coped with stress by blaming the ground team and perceiving that its members felt negatively towards them—even though the records of mission controllers showed that they did not.

This tendency to convert tensions on board into feelings that people on Earth do not care is one reason why sending people to Mars would be as much a psychological as a technical challenge. Indeed, one of the crews of Skylab, NASA's first attempt at a space station, became so annoyed with mission control during their 84 days in space that they mutinied, sulked and turned off all communication.



Some psychologists propose sending an all-female crew to Mars. Even if women become irritable, they are less likely to commit suicide or murder each other than men are. Others think a mixed team would support each other better. But that, as the European experiment may demonstrate, raises the possibility of the first human Martians.

why don't we get to see this stuff on the Space Channel? I've always wondered about the "mundane" facets of space exploration, like what happens when someone farts?

Thinking about actual neuro/psychological disorders on long trips puts my romantic visions of space into severe orbital retrograde.....

...that said, I would love to see some video or listen to some of those exchanges with GC

[Loredoctor]

Thinking about actual neuro/psychological disorders on long trips puts my romantic visions of space into severe orbital retrograde.....

That's a brilliant comment!

[The Laughing Man]

no, that's a brilliant comment!

[Loredoctor]

[Damelon]

...Thinking about actual neuro/psychological disorders on long trips puts my romantic visions of space into severe orbital retrograde.....

...that said, I would love to see some video or listen to some of those exchanges with GC

It put mine in retrograde as well. Though I don't think they were banging on my door to go in the first place.

[Nav]

Some psychologists propose sending an all-female crew to Mars.

I feel a great disturbance in the Force. As if millions of erotic fiction writers cried out in excitement and were suddenly, inspired. I fear something awesome has happened.

[A Gunslinger]

Clearly one member of the crew will need to be a trained clinical psychologist as well as someone with a space-faring professional background too.