Behavioral HealthOther factors that favored Antarctica were the large number of people who
ventured there and that, as an international site, it offers opportunities for research-
ers from many different nations. By picking and choosing research locations, one
can find conditions that resemble those of many different kinds of space mis-
sions, ranging from relatively luxurious space stations to primitive extraterrestrial
camps.^11 In 1963, Robert Voas, one of the early space human factors experts, and
E. K. Eric Gunderson, who had conducted pioneering psychological research in
Antarctica, seriously discussed developing a space mission simulator there, an idea
that reemerges from time to time.^12 By the 1980s, it was recognized widely that
Antarctica provided a useful meeting ground for people who were interested in
adaptation to polar environments and people who were interested in adaptation to
space. In 1987, NASA and the National Science Foundation’s Division of Polar
Programs joined together to sponsor the “Sunnyvale Conference,” which brought
together researchers from each tradition. Presentations centered on environments
(Antarctica and space), theoretical perspectives, isolation and confinement effects,
and interventions and outcomes.^13 Antarctic behavioral research became a truly
international venture guided in part by the Scientific Committee for Antarctic
Research and funded by many sources, including NASA. For example, Des Lugg of
NASA Headquarters and Joanna Woods at Johnson Space Center conducted med-
ical and psychological research with the Australian National Antarctic Research
Expeditions.^14 The next chapter provides further discussion of analog environments.
- D. T. Andersen, C. P. McKay, R. A. Wharton, Jr., and J. D. Rummel, “An Antarctic
Research as a Model for Planetary Exploration,” Journal of the British Interplanetary Society 43
(1990): 499–504. - E. K. E. Gunderson, “Preface,” in From Antarctica to Outer Space: Life in Isolation and
Confinement, ed. A. A. Harrison, Y. A. Clearwater, and C. P. McKay (New York: Springer, 1990),
p. 1. - A. A. Harrison, Y. A. Clearwater, and C. P. McKay, “The Human Experience in
Antarctica: Applications to Life in Space,” Behavioral Science 34, no. 4 (1989): 253–271;
Harrison et al., From Antarctica to Outer Space. - J. Wood, L. Schmidt, D. Lugg, J. Ayton, T. Phillips, and M. Shepanek, “Life, Survival
and Behavioral Health in Small Closed Communities: 10 Years of Studying Small Antarctic
Groups,” Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine 76, no. 6, sect. II (June 2005): B89–B94;
D. J. Lugg, “Behavioral Health in Antarctica: Implications for Long-Duration Space Missions,”
Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine 76, no. 6, sect. II (June 2005): B74–B78.