Psychological and sociological effects of space flight are important to understanding how to successfully achieve the goals of long-duration expeditionary missions. Although robotic spacecraft have landed on Mars, plans have also been discussed for a human expedition, perhaps in the 2030s, for a return mission.
A Mars return expedition may last two to three years and may involve a crew of four to seven people, although shorter flyby missions of approximately years with only two people have been proposed, as well as one-way missions that include landing on Mars with no return trip planned. Although there are a number of technological and physiological issues involved with such a mission that remain to be worked out, there are also a number of behavioral issues affecting the crew that are being addressed before launching such missions. In preparing for such an expedition, important psychological, interpersonal, and psychiatric issues occurring in human spaceflight missions are under study by national space agencies and others.
In October 2015, the NASA Office of Inspector General issued a health hazards report related to human spaceflight, including a human mission to Mars.
Psychosocial issues in-orbit Researchers have conducted two NASA-funded international studies of psychological and interpersonal issues during in-orbit missions to the Mir and the International Space Station. Both crew members and mission control personnel were studied. The Mir sample involved 13 astronauts and cosmonauts and 58 American and Russian mission control personnel. The corresponding numbers in the ISS study were 17 space travelers and 128 people on Earth. Subjects completed a weekly questionnaire that included items from a number of valid and reliable measures that assessed mood and group dynamics. Both studies had similar findings. There was significant evidence for the displacement of tension and negative emotions from the crew members to mission control personnel. The support role of the commander was significantly and positively related to group cohesion among crew members, and both the task and support roles of the team leader were significantly related to cohesion among people in mission control. Crew members scored higher in cultural sophistication than mission control personnel. Russians reported greater language flexibility than Americans. Americans scored higher on a measure of work pressure than Russians, but Russians reported higher levels of tension on the ISS than Americans. There were no significant changes in levels of emotion and group interpersonal climate over time. Specifically, there was no evidence for a general worsening of mood and cohesion after the halfway point of the missions, an occurrence some have called the 3rd quarter phenomenon.Bechtel, R.B., Berning, A. (1991). The third-quarter phenomenon: Do people experience discomfort after stress has passed? In: A.A. Harrison, Y.A. Clearwater, C.P., McKay, eds. From Antarctica to Outer Space. New York: Springer-Verlag.
Other psychosocial studies involving astronauts and cosmonauts have been conducted. In one, an analysis of speech patterns as well as subjective attitudes and personal values were measured in both on-orbit space crews and people working in space analog environments. The researchers found that, over time, these isolated groups showed decreases in the scope and content of their communications and a filtering in what they said to outside personnel, which was termed psychological closing. Crew members interacted less with some mission control personnel than others, perceiving them as opponents. This tendency of some crew members to become more egocentric was called autonomization.Gushin, V.I., Zaprisa, N.S., Kolinitchenko, T.B., Efimov, V.A., Smirnova, T.M., Vinokhodova, A.G., Kanas, N. (1997). Content analysis of the crew communication with external communicants under prolonged isolation. Aviat., Space, Environ. Med., 68, 1093–1098.Gushin, V.I. (2003). Problems of distant communication of isolated small groups. Human Physiol., 29, 548–555. They also found that crew members became more cohesive by spending time together (for example, joint birthday celebrations),Gushin. V.I., Pustynnikova, J.M., Smirnova, T.M. (2001). Interrelations between the small isolated groups with homogeneous and heterogeneous composition. Human Perf. in Extreme Environ., 6, 26–33. and that the presence of subgroups and outliers (e.g., scapegoats) negatively affected group cohesion.Gushin, V.I., Efimov, V.A., Smirnova, T.M., Vinokhodova, A.G, Kanas, N. (1998). Subject's perception of the crew interaction dynamics under prolonged isolation. Aviat., Space, Environ. Med., 69, 556–561. In a study of 12 ISS cosmonauts, researchers reported that personal values generally remained stable, with those related to the fulfillment of professional activities and good social relationships being rated most highly.Vinokhodova, A.G., Gushin, V.I. (2012). Study of values and interpersonal perception in cosmonauts on board of International Space Station. Paper # IAC-12-A1.1.8. International Astronautical Federation. Proceedings, 63rd International Astronautical Congress, Naples, Italy, 1–5 October 2012.
Another study examined potentially disruptive cultural issues affecting space missions in a survey of 75 astronauts and cosmonauts and 106 mission control personnel. The subjects rated coordination difficulties between the different space organizations involved with the missions as the biggest problem. Other problems included communication misunderstandings and differences in work management styles.Tomi, L., Kealey, D., Lange, M., Stefanowska, P., Doyle, V. (2007). Cross-cultural training requirements for long-duration space missions: Results of a survey of International Space Station astronauts and ground support personnel. Paper delivered at the Human Interactions in Space Symposium, 21 May 2007, Beijing, China.
In a study of 11 cosmonauts regarding their opinions of possible psychological and interpersonal problems that might occur during a Mars expedition, researchers found several factors to be rated highly: isolation and monotony, distance-related communication delays with Earth, leadership issues, differences in space agency management styles, and cultural misunderstandings within international crews.Nechaev, A.P., Polyakov, V.V., Morukov, B.V. (2007). "Martian manned mission: What cosmonauts think about this". Acta Astronaut., 60, 351–353.
In a survey of 576 employees of the European Space Agency (ESA), a negative link was found between cultural diversity and the ability of people to interact with one another. The more diversity within the crew, the worse the interactions became. Especially important were factors related to leadership and decision-making.Sandal, G.M., Manzey, D. (2009). "Cross-cultural issues in space operations: A survey study among ground personnel of the European Space Agency". Acta Astronaut., 65, 1520–1529.
Another study looked at content analysis of personal journals from ten ISS astronauts that were oriented around a number of issues that had behavioral implications. Findings included that 88% of the entries dealt with the following categories: Work, Outside Communications, Adjustment, Group Interaction, Recreation/Leisure, Equipment, Events, Organization/Management, Sleep, and Food. In general, the crew members reported that their life in space was not as difficult as they expected prior to launch, despite a 20% increase in interpersonal problems during the second half of the missions. It was recommended that future crew members be allowed to control their individual schedules as much as possible.Stuster, J. (2010). "Behavioral Issues Associated with Long-Duration Space Expeditions: Review and Analysis of Astronaut Journals". Experiment 01-E104 (Journals): Final Report. NASA/TM-2010-216130. Houston, Texas: NASA/Johnson Space Center.
On-orbit and post-spaceflight psychiatric issues A number of psychiatric problems have been reported during on-orbit space missions. Most common are adjustment reactions to the novelty of being in space, with symptoms generally including transient anxiety or depression. Psychosomatic reactions also have occurred, where anxiety and other emotional states are experienced physically as somatic symptoms. Problems related to major mood and thought disorders (e.g., manic-depression, schizophrenia) have not been reported during space missions. This likely is due to the fact that crew members have been screened psychiatrically for constitutional predispositions to these conditions before launch, so the likelihood of these illnesses developing on-orbit is low.
Post-mission personality changes and emotional problems have affected some returning space travelers. These have included anxiety, depression, excessive alcohol use, and marital readjustment difficulties that in some cases have necessitated the use of psychotherapy and psychoactive medications.Aldrin, E.E. (1973). Return to Earth. New York: Random House. Some astronauts have had difficulties adjusting to the resultant fame and media demands that followed their missions, and similar problems are likely to occur in the future following high-profile expeditions, such as a trip to Mars.
Asthenization, a syndrome that includes fatigue, irritability, emotional lability, attention and concentration difficulties, and appetite and sleep problems, has been reported to commonly occur in cosmonauts by Russian flight surgeons.Myasnikov, V.I., Zamaletdinov, I.S. (1996). Psychological states and group interactions of crew members in flight. In: A.E. Nicogossian, S.R. Mohler, O.G. Gazenko, A.I. Grigoriev, eds. Space Biology and Medicine III: Humans in Spaceflight. Book 2. Reston, VA: AIAA. It has been observed to evolve in clearly defined stages.Aleksandrovskiy, Y.A. (1976). States of Psychic Deadaptation and their Compensation. Moscow: Nauka Press (In Russian). It is conceptualized as an adjustment reaction to being in space that is different from neurasthenia, a related neurotic condition seen on Earth.Myasnikov, V.I., Stepanova, S.I., Salnitskiy, V.P., Kozerenko, O.P., and Nechaev, A.P. (2000). Problems of Psychic Asthenization in Prolonged Space Flight. Moscow: Slovo Press (In Russian).
The validity of asthenization has been questioned by some in the West, in part because classical neurasthenia is not currently recognized in the American psychiatric nomenclature, whereas the illness is accepted in Russia and China. Retrospective analysis of the data from the Soviet Space Biology and Medicine III Mir Space Station study (see ) has shown that the findings did not support the presence of the asthenization syndrome when crew member on-orbit scores were compared with those from a prototype of asthenization developed by Russian space experts.Kanas, N., Salnitskiy, V., Gushin, V., Weiss, D.S., Grund, E.M., Flynn, C., Kozerenko, O., Sled, A., Marmar, C.R. (2001). Asthenia – Does it exist in space? Psychosom. Med., 63, 874–880.
Positive outcomes Isolated and confined environments may also produce positive experiences.Palinkas, L.A. (1991). Group adaptation and individual adjustment in Antarctica: A summary of recent research. In: A.A. Harrison, Y.A. Clearwater, C.P., McKay, eds. From Antarctica to Outer Space. New York: Springer-Verlag. A survey of 39 astronauts and cosmonauts found that all of the respondents reported positive changes as a result of flying in space. One particular measure stood out: Perceptions of Earth in general were highly positive, while gaining a stronger appreciation of the Earth's beauty had the highest mean change score.Ihle, E.C., Ritsher, J.B., Kanas, N. (2006). Positive psychological outcomes of space flight: An empirical study. Aviat. Space, Environ. Med., 77, 93–101.