From the Past to the Futuredemands of planetary exploration mission space crews and the design of their hab-
itats is needed before the psychological issues associated with these missions can
finally be assessed.
It is beyond doubt that political and commercial interests, to a large extent,
will dictate crew composition for future missions, and these forces might introduce
new factors that must be addressed as part of mission planning. An era of space tour-
ism seems to be at hand, as highlighted by the study presented by Harvey Wichman
in chapter 5. Now that the Russian, European, and American space agencies are
equal partners on joint projects such as the ISS, they are faced with challenges
related to collaboration among people with different cultural backgrounds. For a
long time, the impact of cultural variability seemed to be a neglected area in aero-
space research. As demonstrated by several chapters in this volume, the last few
years have witnessed an increased recognition of the potential safety risks associ-
ated with cultural heterogeneity in terms of nationality, organizational background,
and profession. Accidents like those involving Challenger and Columbia have under-
scored the need for future studies to focus not only on people operating in space,
but also on ground-based personnel.
Management of the safety culture may become even more complex in inter-
national space programs in which mission preparation and control often demand
the coordinated effort of different space agencies. An interesting study by L. Tomi,
P. Stefanowska, and V. F. Doyle involved data collection among ISS personnel from
different agencies.^1 The results demonstrated the need for training and interven-
tion beyond the space crews and the need to address differences in organizational
cultures, in addition to those between national cultures. A similar conclusion was
reached in another study involving 600 employees working for ESA that addressed
challenges associated with collaboration with representatives from other agencies.
Preliminary results indicate that the most prominent difficulties differed accord-
ing to agency and seem to reflect value differences anchored in organizational and
national culture.^2
1 L. Tomi, P. Stefanowska, and V. F. Doyle, “Cross-cultural Training Requirements
Definition Survey for the International Space Station” (paper presented at the 115th Annual
Convention of the American Psychological Association, San Francisco, CA, August 2007).
2 G. M. Sandal and D. Manzey, “Cultural Determinants of Co-working of Ground
Personnel in the European Space Agency,” Acta Astronautica 65 (2009): 1520–1569.