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Astronauts

Space Travel Offers Lessons On Dealing With Confinement

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
April 10, 2020
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Space Travel Offers Lessons On Dealing With Confinement

Space Medicine Research Program Focuses on People Struggling with Confinement – Online resource addresses stress, depression and conflict, Dartmouth College
“These resources are meant to make anyone better at stress management, depression treatment and conflict resolution,” said Dr. Jay Buckey, a professor of medicine at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine. “These are self-help tools. The individual is doing the work. The tools offer practical things that people can do in any environment.” Buckey, a former astronaut and currently the director of Geisel’s Space Medicine Innovations Lab, flew aboard the space shuttle Columbia in 1998. Buckey and his research colleagues at Dartmouth, Harvard, and UCLA developed the tools over more than a decade.”
Former Astronaut Teaches COVID-19 Management Course
“As scientists, doctors, and governments try to get a grip on COVID-19, surgeon and partner of ES4P David Joyce, MD MBA, and Emergency Medical physician and former NASA astronaut Scott Parazynski, MD, are partnering to offer a new online course on COVID-19 for healthcare providers.”
The Parallels Between Space Missions And COVID-19 Isolation
“Jack Stuster has been conducting studies for NASA on how crews live and work in space and the parallels that can be found with expeditions on Earth for decades. He has provided this commentary about confinement and isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic and the parallels within his studies.”
Personal Note About The Pandemic: Be Mark Watney, earlier post
Social Isolation Tips From Astronaut Leroy Chiao, earlier post
Things Are About To Get Bad Folks. But Then It Will Get Better., earlier post

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6 responses to “Space Travel Offers Lessons On Dealing With Confinement”

  1. Michael Spencer says:
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    Our astronauts are extraordinary individuals at the start; and while I don’t know for certain, surely personal tolerance of closeness and of enclosed spaces is part of the initial screening process?

    That being said, I’ll take all of the advice I can, especially from our astronaut corp.

    • kcowing says:
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      Based on my experience that is sort of a level zero requirement.

    • fcrary says:
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      That’s been part of the selection process since Mercury, although it’s gotten more reasonable and realistic since then. But part of the process needs to go beyond initial screening (and I believe if does.) I think a major issue isn’t just tolerance for enclosed places. It’s also a matter of who you are stuck in that enclosed space with. I can think of people who are perfectly nice and easy to get along with, but who _will_ get into arguments if you put them together. So there are certainly crew selection issues, when it comes to assembling a team of astronauts.

      That’s one of the things I don’t like about many science fiction novels about Mars missions. From a writer’s point of view, interpersonal relations make a good plot element. Arguments between crew members, astronauts who have an affair on the long trip to Mars and then have a nasty breakup, things like that. But when I read those stories, I often think that no one in their right mind would have assigned those two people to the same crew. To get back to the current situation on Earth, I think those stay at home directives are going to produce lots of divorces, fights among people trapped in the same place for too long, etc. On the bright side, it might also solidify many relationships among people how discover they really can stand being around each other 24 hours a day. I hope the two possibilities at least balance out.

      • ThomasLMatula says:
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        Yes, news reports are that there is an upswing in domestic violence cases, both in Europe and Asia as well as in the U.S.

        That is going to be an important factor in the settlement of space, at least for the immigrant generations. The kids born there will just take it for granted and be adapted. Kids are very adaptable. But the immigrants themselves should be spending a year or two living locked down in Earth analogs first to prepare them before leaving for space.

        And it’s also another point in favor of settling the Moon first since it’s a much shorter trip home than the one from Mars is. And the immigrants that make it on the Moon, and their children, will be much more qualified for Mars settlement in that regard. BTW Issac Asimov illustrated the issue well in his 1953 story “The Martian Way”.

        • fcrary says:
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          Since you mentioned early science fiction, I’ll also point to Heinlein’s “It’s Great to Be Back!” (1947.) There are things you get used to when you move to a new environment without realizing it, and things you didn’t like about you old home but don’t really notice until you’ve gotten away from them and then go back and have to deal with them again.

          • ThomasLMatula says:
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            Yes, that is a great story about the differences space settlers on the Moon and those who never leave home.