Psychology of Space Exploration
in space at one time as three female crewmembers aboard Discovery—Dorothy
Metcalf-Lindenburger, Stephanie Wilson, and Naoko Yamazaki—joined Station
resident Tracy Caldwell Dyson in orbit. As the number of mixed-gender crews will
likely increase in the future, including those taking voyages to near-Earth asteroids
and then to Mars, it is prudent to ask if there are any potential limitations to men
and women working together for extended periods of time.
This chapter reviews findings from mixed-gender crews in spaceflight as well as
relevant analogs like aviation, Antarctic research bases, and other complex envi-
ronments to highlight how gender composition moderates crew interactions and
performance. To explore this relationship, we focus specifically on the variable of
cohesion, or the degree to which crewmembers are committed to each other and to
the crew’s shared task, and offer recommendations for the optimal gender composi-
tion for future space missions in terms of this important crew variable.
INTRODUCTION
In 2004, the Bush administration’s Vision for Space Exploration refocused the
U.S. human spaceflight program on returning people to the Moon by 2020 and then
sending a crew to Mars. The Obama administration’s plan, announced in April 2010,
focuses on asteroid rendezvous missions as stepping-stones for a Mars flight. Regardless
of the specifics of the plan, sending humans beyond low-Earth orbit is ambitious on
many fronts and will require the development of a host of new technologies, from
improved launch and propulsion systems to a completely new crew vehicle. Scientists
and engineers must also work diligently to design systems and mission activities to
protect against physiological risks associated with long-duration spaceflight (LDSF),
including radiation exposure, bone degradation, and muscle loss. However, beyond
the technical and physiological challenges, a major obstacle to LDSF is the psycho-
social environment during the mission. In conjunction with individual responses to
isolation and confinement, researchers contend that problems associated with crew
interactions may be a significant limiting factor for extended space missions.^1 Jack
- Nick Kanas and Dietrich Manzey, Space Psychology and Psychiatry (El Segundo, CA:
Microcosm Press and Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003).