Psychology of Space Exploration
and processes will emerge from the research needed to ensure effective performance
and adjustment in space.”^26
Revisiting the issue some 10 years later, a subsequent Committee on Space
Biology and Medicine reaffirmed the urgency of their predecessors’ recommenda-
tions: “Despite this [the 1987 panel’s] assessment of the importance of behavioral
issues, little progress has been made transforming the recommendations for research
on human behavior and performance in space into action . . . . As could be pre-
dicted from controlled simulation studies, the history of space exploration has seen
many instances of reduced energy levels, mood changes, poor interpersonal rela-
tions, faulty decision-making, and lapses in memory and attention. Although these
negative psychological reactions have yet to result in disaster, this is no justification
for ignoring problems that may have disastrous consequences. Furthermore, there
are degrees of failure short of disaster and degrees of success short of perfection; if
favorable organizational and environmental conditions can increase the level and
probability of success, they are worthy of consideration.”^27
The 1998 Committee’s recommendations included studying the effects of the
physical and psychosocial environment of spacecraft on cognitive, psychophysi-
ological, and affective measures of behavior and performance; the development
and evaluation of countermeasures for mitigating adverse effects of the physical
and social environments on individual and group performance; in-flight studies of
the characteristics of sleep during long-duration missions; ground-based studies of
change and stability in individual psychophysiological patterns in response to psy-
chosocial and environmental stressors; the effects of individual differences on cog-
nitive, psychophysiological, and affective measures of behavior and performance;
improved methods for assessing interpersonal relations and crew compatibility; and
improved training [didactic and experiential] in psychological and social adapta-
tion to space. The Committee also urged exploring the effects of crew composition
on crew tension, cohesion, and performance; factors affecting ground-crew commu-
nication and interactions; and conditions that affect the distribution of authority,
decision-making, and task assignments between space crews and ground control.
- Committee on Space Biology and Medicine, A Strategy for Space Medicine and Medical
Science for the 1980s and 1990s (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1987), p. 169. - Committee on Space Biology and Medicine, A Strategy for Research in Space Biology and
Medicine in the New Century (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1998), p. 169.