Moon mission simulation explores how isolation affects astronauts ’ wellbeing

By Matthew Warren The next decade promises to be an exciting one for space travel. With the Artemis missions, NASA plans to send a crewed mission to the moon in a few years’ time, and will eventually establish a base camp at the lunar South Pole for longer expeditions. Meanwhile, Elon Musk claims that SpaceX will send a crew to Mars in 2029. But any long-term space mission will face numerous challenges — not just technical, but also psychological. Astronauts will have to spend weeks or months in small confines with just a few fellow crew members, isolated from the rest of humanity. So it will be important to predict how this experience might affect astronauts’ mental health — and whether there are particular activities that could protect against any negative effects. This was one of the aims of the LUNARK project, the results of which were published recently in Acta Astronautica. Two men in their 20s spent 61 days living in a specially constructed habitat in Northern Greenland, designed to mimic the conditions astronauts would experience in a base on the moon. The participants had to cope with outside temperatures as low as -30°c and a month of complete darkness, and had no contact with the outside world other than sending short daily messages back home. Each day, the participants had tasks to complete such as conducting experiments or gathering ice for water, but also had downtime to relax or socialise together. And at the end of most days, they fil...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Mental health Source Type: blogs