Psychology of Space Exploration
How has psychology fared in the U.S. space program? In his presidential address
to the Division of Engineering Psychology on 4 September 1961, Walter F. Grether
affirmed psychology’s crucial role in the newly initiated conquest of space, noting
that psychologists of that day were responding with creativity and vigor to the enor-
mous behavioral challenges.^5 Looking back over the history of aviation, Grether
remarked that despite a few contributions to military aviation in World War I, for
roughly 35 years after the Wright brothers’ initial flight at Kitty Hawk, aviation
and psychology pretty much went separate ways. Then, beginning with research
to benefit civilian aviation in the late 1930s and followed by a powerful military
program in World War II, aviation psychology became prominent and influential.
“How much different the role of psychology has been in man’s early ventures into
space!” Grether wrote.^6 Psychological testing, he continued, was prominent in the
selection of the initial seven Mercury astronauts, and beyond selection psycholo-
gists were productively engaged in vehicle design, training, task design, and work-
load management.
Grether pointed to four areas for future research: moving about the interior of
spacecraft (once they became large enough for this to occur), conducting extrave-
hicular activities (EVAs) or “spacewalks,” performing rendezvous, and living and
working under conditions of prolonged isolation and confinement. Highly optimis-
tic about America’s future in space, Grether foresaw a strong continuing partnership
between psychology and space exploration. One of his few notes of pessimism—
that it would not be possible to use the science fiction writer’s rocket gun to move
from place to place during EVAs—would soon be proven wrong. Beyond provid-
ing psychologists with new opportunities for employment and research support, he
felt, space exploration would open new frontiers of knowledge and stimulate think-
ing about new problems that would lead to new theories, hypotheses, and methods.
Nearly three decades later, participants at the 30th anniversary of the 1959
founding of the International Ergonomics Association might conclude that Grether
was right. In the field generally known as human factors in the U.S. and ergonomics
in the United Kingdom (U.K.) and Europe, human factors specialists are interested
in the scientific problems of experimental psychology, anatomy, and physiology
- W. F. Grether, “Psychology and the Space Frontier,” American Psychologist 17, no. 2
(February 1962): 92–101. - Ibid., pp. 92–93.