Personally, we couldn’t do it.
We see two different issues: the inability to get away from the other crewmembers, and loneliness. There are different schools of thought on this matter. Some researchers think that introverts would be better at handling loneliness, since they’re less dependent on social interaction to sustain them in their day-to-day lives. However, we find it hard to believe that introverted people would be able to deal with prolonged interaction with other crewmembers better than extroverted people. One of the challenges would be to build a team that could live together in close quarters for two years without conflict or tension. After the team has been assembled, the challenge is then to prevent and mitigate the impact of conflict between group members.
There are also thoughts of testing a group together before sending them off. The purpose of the tests are to get a good idea of what group interaction will be like aboard the ship. So, the question is how do you build an experiment to test the astronauts? There is always the potential that the tests might make the strain even worse, since it prolongs the time they have to be together, but such tests are also necessary. The controllers of the experiment will probably not send people into space if they could not work together, so that is less of a concern. The next natural question is, ‘what if the tests go well, but a problem crops up when they’re already on their way that didn’t show up in testing?’ This would indicate that the test is imperfect, but it’s the best we have currently. This raises some questions about the participation of people back on Earth – will psychologists be needed and how would they intervene if necessary? Like you have engineers to diagnose and fix mechanical and computer problems, future crews will probably have a psychologist to address the human problems on a space ship.
The idea of privacy will be intrinsic to the design of crew quarters. Having personal time to reflect on Earth is important to learning and personal growth. Therefore, maintaining that space for personal activities will be essential to the mental health of the crew. Having your own cabin might give you some privacy, but maintaining a spacecraft and a functioning command structure requires that everyone fulfills their duties. There would be no vacation, no respite from daily life aboard your craft. You would have to be present and working most days, save for regularly scheduled personal time, if any, or emergencies that prevent you from doing your part. It’s not all bad though. You would be constantly provided with a vantage point that few before you would have. Not only that, but anyone who has been on a good sports team or lived with a good group of friends knows the benefits of having close bonds with your crew mates. This turns living with people from a difficult challenge into an exciting opportunity to bond with others.
In the last decade, real-scale tests have been conducted on people in simulated space habitats. Three experiments have shown that living with people in simulated space conditions is complicated and has a large number of variables that need to be understood and controlled before embarking on a journey. Particularly, one early experiment revealed that human sexuality can cause tension between crew members and result in deviation from the mission objectives. For instance, a Canadian astronaut was harassed by a crew mate during a simulation, which culminated in a fist fight between two Russian cosmonauts and resulted in ending the experiment early.
The latest in a series of Russian experiments included a 520-day stint aboard a mock-up capsule. This experiment simulated the journey to Mars, exploring the surface, and returning the crew back to Earth. The experimental crew was comprised was a multi-national all-male crew that were part of the experiment and conducted over 100 experiments themselves. The crew was made all male to prevent sexual tension from affecting the mission scope or outcome. However, this does not necessarily prevent sexual tension from occurring on the mission. Who is to say that only heterosexual males or females should be allowed to go into space? These questions raise ethical concerns since it would be unethical to screen people based on sex or sexual orientation. But if an advance is made by anyone between crew members, who is to say how that will be received – will it be reciprocated or rejected, and how will the crew manage the fallout from that rejection? It was thought that sending married couples into space will result in a more stable crew social dynamic. Why? Having married couples will reduce sexual tension, which removes a wild variable from the equation. However, what happens if two people are dating or married during the mission and their relationship goes sour? This would present a very serious threat to the viability of the mission, given the volatile emotions that surround those events. It’s unfortunate that the first experiment did so poorly, but this should not deter women from becoming a part of the astronaut program, especially with respect to the Mars mission. Perhaps lessons learned in both experiments can prevent similar situations from arising in the future. This also opens up opportunities to learn how the sexes will interact in confined environments, removed of all familiarity from what we know on Earth.
Instead of immediately coming to the conclusion that the crew needs to be made up of all one sex and sexual orientation in order to prevent these kinds of conflicts, more research and experimentation should be conducted. This would help design the social aspect of future crews not only in space, but on Earth as well. Think of situations here on Earth in which this research would be beneficial. For instance, on ocean-going civilian or military ships that do not see port for weeks or months at a time. They would essentially have to live under the same conditions as astronauts would on extended space journeys. Discipline is a part of it – being able to separate work from play will be essential – but knowledge and awareness of the social aspects will help future astronauts handle important social issues among their crew.
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