Space Sickness

Look Back And Ponder

The jokes about Capt. Nowak aside, the incident has brought about a hightenned interest in the psychological screening of astronauts. Space Sickness is the stuff of fiction; except there's always the spectre of cabin fever. After all, one could argue, not so much "how this came to pass", but more "why doesn't it happen more often?"
They are highly stresses professionals under immense scrutiny. It's amazing they don't sort of crack up more often.

The recent meltdown of captain Nowak has brought about this article, which I think is interesting.

The bizarre case of Lisa Marie Nowak, a Naval officer and NASA astronaut who was arrested on Monday and formally charged yesterday with attempted kidnapping and murder, continues to animate online discussions (including in our own forums). Much of the chatter centers on NASA’s psychological screening process, as well as the degree to which Ms. Nowak’s conduct falls under the jurisdiction of civilian authorities, Naval rules and NASA regulations.

At least a few people associated with the nation’s space program have emerged in news reports suggesting that psychological testing for astronauts is not quite up to snuff. The Associated Press quotes retired astronaut Jerry Linenger, for example, who suggested that NASA needed to review its psychological screening process:

With NASA talking about a 2 1/2-year trip to Mars, it would be dangerous for someone to “snap like this” during the mission, he said.

“An astronaut is probably the most studied human being by the time you go through your testing, your training,” Linenger said. “I think there’s still a lot of unknowns out there.”

No screening, of course, is foolproof. Writing more than a decade ago in New Scientist magazine, Ian Mundell noted the problems that Soviet cosmonauts have encountered during long term space flight. He includes a telling quote from Cosmonaut Valery Ryumin:

Cosmonaut Valery Ryumin wrote in his personal diary in 1980, “All the necessary conditions to perpetrate a murder are met by locking two men in a cabin of 18 by 20 feet … for two months.” As far as the Western world knows Soviet space missions never went that far, despite missions lasting more than a year in the 90 cubic meters of the Mir orbital station. And even that space became increasingly constricted because used equipment was stored inside, rather than ejected.

NASA itself, in exploring the risks associated with an extremely long manned flight to Mars, should it ever be undertaken, has noted on occasion that psychological and psychosocial issues crop up periodically — perhaps inevitably — among astronauts:

The bits in italics are quotes within quotes. You get the idea that spending time in a tin-can isn't exactly like relaxing in the lounge-like atmosphere of a Star Trek spaceship bridge or even the main section of the Millennium Falcon. People are going to get a form of cabin fever up there.