Isolation and Confinement Issues in Long Duration Spaceflight

Abstract

As human kind prepares for further exploration of our solar system it is crucial to consider the wide range of potential psychological and physiological effects brought about by long duration spaceflight.12 This paper reviews efforts to address these effects in three areas: human factors design, physiological health, and psychosocial issues. Human factors design considerations include increasing user-friendliness and earth-like familiarity of space vehicles. Physiological concerns involve physical conditioning and reducing individual stress levels. Psycho social efforts have traditionally focused on crew selection in addition to coping with the stresses of isolation and confinement. However as the duration of spaceflight missions increases, it is necessary to consider a fourth factor: interpersonal dynamics. Interpersonal dynamics will influence communications, crew compatibility, and coping. The role of group psychology will become especially salient during prolonged confinement during longer missions. This heightened potential for interpersonal problems demands attention, with important implications for crew training and mission design. Furthermore, besides the stresses already faced by current spaceflight crews, crew members on longer duration missions will likely encounter reduced communication, increased stress - especially from homesickness - and difficulty maintaining motivation. While some countermeasures have previously been suggested - increased crew autonomy, selection of compatible crews, and training flight crews together to increase cohesiveness - a better understanding of social psychological issues during extended spaceflight is necessary. Thus as NASA and other space faring organizations prepare for longer duration missions, efforts undertaken now to develop preventative measures for mitigating psycho social challenges are far more preferable to the potentially much greater demands of managing and treating psychological crises real-time during a spaceflight mission.