Psychology of Space Exploration
Greater availability of participant observations of spacefarers from numerous
nations is one of the byproducts of the modern space exploration era. Spacefarers’
perspectives on the dynamics of monocultural and bicultural space crews provide
a major resource that should be systematically tapped and utilized. Conversely, the
accounts of the subjective experiences of these guest astronauts are a source of infor-
mation on being a minority of one in a novel, demanding, and stressful undertaking.
Space exploration has been both a challenge and a boon to cross-cultural psy-
chology: a challenge by demonstrating that, even though it is a young branch of its
discipline, it has methods and findings to contribute to the continued progress of
space exploration, and a boon by making it possible to collect a wealth of unique
data of cultural relevance. These data remain to be sifted, categorized, and incorpo-
rated into a set of general principles. Potentially, cross-cultural psychology stands to
be tremendously enriched as this happens. We hope that cross-cultural psychology’s
contribution to international missions will constitute a partial repayment.