Table Of ContentON ORBIT AND BEYOND
SPACE TECHNOLOGY LIBRARY
Published jointly by Microcosm Press and Springer
The Space Technology Library Editorial Board
Managing Editor: James R. Wertz, Microcosm, Inc., El Segundo, CA, USA;
Editorial Board: Val A. Chobotov, Consultant on Space Hazards, Aerospace Corporation, Los
Angeles, CA, USA;
Michael L. DeLorenzo, Permanent Professor and Head, Dept. of Astronautics,
U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado Spring, CO, USA;
Roland Dore´, Professor and Director, International Space University, Strasbourg,
France;
Robert B. Giffen, Professor Emeritus, U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado Spring,
CO, USA;
Gwynne Gurevich, Space Exploration Technologies, Hawthorne, CA, USA;
Wiley J. Larson, Professor, U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado Spring, CO, USA;
Tom Logsdon, Senior Member of Technical Staff, Space Division, Rockwell
International, Downey, CA, USA;
F. Landis Markley, Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA, Greenbelt, MD, USA;
Robert G. Melton, Associate Professor of Aerospace Engineering, Pennsylvania
State University, University Park, PA, USA;
Keiken Ninomiya, Professor, Institute of Space & Astronautical Science,
Sagamihara, Japan;
Jehangir J. Pocha, Letchworth, Herts, UK;
Frank J. Redd, Professor and Chair, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Dept., Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA;
Rex W. Ridenoure, Jet Microcosm, Inc., Torrance, CA, USA;
Malcolm D. Shuster, Professor of Aerospace Engineering, Mechanics and
Engineering Science, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA;
Gael Squibb, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology,
Pasadena, CA, USA;
Martin Sweeting, Professor of Satellite Engineering, University of Surrey,
Guildford, UK
For further volumes:
www.springer.com/series/6575
Douglas A. Vakoch
Editor
On Orbit and Beyond
Psychological Perspectives on Human
Spaceflight
Editor
Douglas A. Vakoch
California Institute of Integral Studies
San Francisco
CA, USA
and
SETI Institute
Mountain View
CA, USA
ISBN 978-3-642-30582-5 ISBN 978-3-642-30583-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-30583-2
Springer Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London
Library of Congress Control Number: 2012953092
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To Tom Pierson, for his steadfast leadership
of research and education at the forefront
of space exploration and the search for life
beyond Earth
.
Foreword
Space is one of the final frontiers for humankind. This book addresses that final
frontier.
We humans have progressed from short orbital flights to landing on the Moon
and astronauts living in low Earth orbit. Exploration missions to beyond the Moon
such as asteroids and into deep space are in the planning stages.
I am an applied aerospace psychologist who has had the fortune to participate in
the psychological portion of US astronaut selection for the past 22 years. The last
13 years I have worked in the Space Medicine Division, Behavioral Health and
Performance Group, Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas. We regularly train,
communicate with, and support all US and some International Partner astronauts
who have flown on the International Space Station.
One point that comes to my mind was the so-called communication strike of the
crew on Skylab 4. In November 1973, the final manned mission of this US space
station resulted in a conflict between the flight crew and the ground control. The
crew’s initial task of unloading and stowing the thousands of items needed for their
lengthy mission proved to be overwhelming. The schedule for the activation
sequence dictated lengthy work periods with a large variety of tasks to be
performed, and crew members soon found themselves tired and behind schedule.
As the activation of Skylab progressed, the astronauts complained of being pushed
too hard. Ground crews disagreed; they felt that the astronauts were not working
long enough or hard enough. During the course of the mission, this culminated in a
radio conference to air frustrations. The space crew took a day off from work.
Following this, the workload schedule was modified, and by the end of the mission
the crew had completed even more work than had been planned before launch. The
experiences of the crew and ground controllers provided important lessons in
planning subsequent manned spaceflight work schedules. From that incident, we
learned how critical it is to educate and train both ground control personnel and
space crews in the social psychological issues of spaceflight.
On Orbit and Beyond is an important book for many reasons. You will read a
historical survey of the role of psychologists and psychiatrists in the evolution of
space flight, especially the American experience. Surviving and thriving in the
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extreme space environment is fraught with social challenges as well as simple
physical survival. You will discover some of the major social psychological issues
of living in low Earth orbit and of future space missions to asteroids and other
planets. Advanced technology has led to expensive and complicated space vehicles.
Yet we humans have not advanced so quickly. We still have to contend with our
narrow margin of life support limits, isolation, confinement, danger, monotony,
workload, cultural effects, and personality conflicts.
There are only a dozen or so space behavioral health clinicians in the world. As
an applied psychologist daily working with my National Aeronautics and Space
Administration, Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, Russian Space Agency,
and European Space Agency colleagues, I rely on policymakers, operational
managers, and scholars in supporting the astronauts’ psychological challenges.
For many years, Dr. Doug Vakoch has labored to ensure that the public has access
to and understanding of the social psychology of living in space. In this book, he has
gathered together some of the most renowned applied and research experts whose
daily lives have been involved with the space program. These authors hail from
Canada, China, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, South Africa,
and the United States, making this a truly international effort. You will read about
data-based evidence and expert opinions. The authors include space social
scientists, psychologists, psychiatrists, and researchers. These are the experts in
helping policymakers and managers of the US and other Space Programs make wise
decisions.
The first edition of this project was published by NASA in the NASA History
Series as Psychology of Space Exploration: Contemporary Research in Historical
Perspective. I am excited to see the second edition published by Springer with the
chapters doubling in number. You will see the progress made since the Skylab 4
communication incident. Issues addressed in this edition include a thorough history
of psychology’s role and recent progress in the US Space Program, psychological
support, the importance of space analog environments, positive aspects of space
flight, the role of astronauts’ families, the dynamics of cross-cultural teams in
space, autonomy for space crews in spaceflight, and more.
All of us, you the reader, those of us in operational settings, current researchers,
space program administrators, and future generations are deeply indebted to Dr.
Doug Vakoch for his dedicated commitment to this project. Thank you Doug.
Walter Sipes, Ph.D.
Aerospace Psychologist
NASA Johnson Space Center
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Preface to the Second Edition
Over half a century ago, humankind first entered space when Yuri Gagarin became
the first person to orbit Earth on April 12, 1961. Soon afterward, the United States
launched its first manned mission to space, and in 2003 China became the third
nation to send a human into space. Over the years, spacefarers from over three
dozen countries have flown in space in missions that demonstrate increasing
international cooperation. On Orbit and Beyond details how the psychological
demands of space missions have changed over the decades, requiring increasingly
talented and flexible astronauts.
The first missions into space were typically brief, lasting only hours or days, and
crews were small. The early years of space exploration were marked by competition
between the United States and the Soviet Union, and the astronauts who showed
“the right stuff” were not only courageous explorers of this new frontier but heroes
back home. As an intensely competitive space race has given way to international
cooperation over the decades, the challenges of communicating across cultural
boundaries and dealing with interpersonal conflicts have become increasingly
important, requiring astronauts to develop additional coping skills and sensibilities.
The psychological stresses of living and working in space are considerable. In
the early days of space exploration, short-duration challenges were faced by close-
knit crews from the same country. Over the years we have seen increases in both the
duration of space missions and the size of crews, as the Soviet Union established
permanent space stations, the United States conducted its Space Shuttle program,
and a truly transnational effort gave rise to the International Space Station. As crews
more frequently included spacefarers from multiple cultures and missions became
longer, the challenges of living in space highlighted the need to examine the
psychological dimensions of space exploration in even greater depth.
On Orbit and Beyond includes chapters updated since its first incarnation, which
was published by NASA as Psychology of Space Exploration: Contemporary
Research in Historical Perspective. This revised edition has twice as many chapters
as the first edition, with new chapters in every section. In short, this new edition
provides a more comprehensive analysis of the challenges of surviving and thriving
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in space, as spacefarers deal with the complexities of working effectively with
astronauts from other cultures under interpersonally demanding circumstances.
With an eye to the future, On Orbit and Beyond closes with a new section that
explores how tomorrow’s astronauts will handle the increased autonomy they will
face on missions to Mars and beyond. This expansion of attention from Earth’s orbit
and the Moon to more distant destinations is a response to changing national
priorities for space exploration. For example, in 2010, the Obama administration
announced a new target for American astronauts as they travel beyond Earth’s orbit.
Rather than establishing a permanent lunar colony, as had been planned previously,
NASA is making plans for a manned mission to an asteroid by 2025. By this
timeline, a successful asteroid mission will help prepare for a trip to Mars some
years later.
A mission to the red planet would take 2 years, with no chance of quickly
returning to Earth if emergencies arise—a prospect that astronauts have never had
to face before. In On Orbit and Beyond, leading space psychologists and
psychiatrists provide guidance for coping with such future missions to asteroids,
Mars, and beyond—drawing on lessons learned from past missions to the Moon,
long-duration stays on space stations orbiting Earth, and analog environments on
Earth.
