Ironically, coping with isolation takes a team — and NASA has assembled one.
If you thought the COVID-19 lockdowns were rough, think of this: Astronauts on the Mars mission will be confined to a spaceship with three to five other people for more than two years. And they will be, at peak distance,from anything they’ve ever known. Even the most extreme introvert and most daring adventurer might find that disconcerting. But NASA is on it.
The Human Factors and Behavioral Performance team, a part of NASA’s Human Research Program , works to understand and reduce the negative effects of long space missions, including finding ways to help astronauts cope with isolation. This is especially important as NASA plans longer missions, including a crewed mission to Mars. For the Mars trip, astronauts will be in space for two-and-a-half years.
Another perk on the space station is that from time to time, crew members get care packages from home, maybe a favorite food or other small gift. And even though they are a long way (All this, plus an always-available psychological support team on the ground, can help reduce the isolation and stress of life on the space station.
But the Mars mission is an entirely different ball game. Future missions, explains Whitmire, especially missions to Mars, will have extensive communications delays, so chatting with loved ones won’t be in real-time. In addition, care packages will be drastically reduced if they are in place at all, she says. And there won’t be room for a lot of variety in food or as much exercise equipment. So many of the stresses and strains of life in isolation will be amplified.
This is why learning from ISS alone won’t give the full picture of what the Mars mission will be like, says Whitmire. So NASA has something calledIn these analogs, researchers can get an idea of what kinds of behavioral and cognitive problems humans are likely to have when isolated for long periods of time in tiny spaceships with the same few people. Then, the research team can test ways to address these issues.
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