Isolation Of Astronauts Essay

The idea of isolation is often attributed to prisons and asylums, although several occupations involve it as well. As such, persons for jobs involving isolation are selected and trained to allow them to cope with mental and emotional stress resulting from this. For example, five astronauts are currently residing in the International Space Station (ISS), a weightless environment with compact spaces and limited interaction. Frequent exercise is also needed because of bone and muscle degeneration in zero gravity. Though these astronauts return to Earth after a set amount of time, the far more audacious Mars One program plans to send non-astronauts on a one-way trip to Mars, in an effort to colonize it. Stress in such an environment would be even

Additionally, though occuring earlier in history, World War II soldiers working in submarines for extended times would be subject to similar mental and emotional difficulties as a result of confined space and lack of human interaction. Both of these occupations place people in extreme environments, lacking oxygen, outside of their respective vehicles. Prior to the space race between the USA and Russia (and the ensuing NASA Mercury missions), extensive research was conducted regarding the wellbeing of astronauts when placed in such environments. Research was stemmed from the stress pilots encounter when flying at high altitudes, and further developed using devices such as decompression chambers to subject astronauts to what they would experience in space. (Harrison, 18). Studies related to isolation have exhibited that after a set amount of time in isolation, people begin to interact less with others, and experience sleep disorders in addition to depression. (Palinkas, 26). As such, NASA is known to run psychiatric tests on possible astronauts, in order to gauge their usefulness in a confined environment such as a space shuttle or the ISS. Perhaps most astounding is the Mars One project, which