Behavioral HealthNSBRI partners hope that their research on spacefarers and analogs will benefit
people on Earth.
In 2003, NASA commissioned a workshop on spaceflight behavioral health.
The primary purpose of this workshop was to bring together researchers and prac-
titioners in an effort to identify research gaps and produce an archival record for
use by managers, established behavioral health researchers, and newcomers to the
field.^48 Also, and perhaps most important since the mid-1990s, astronauts have
begun to respond to questionnaires on such topics as noise levels and communica-
tion.^49 Astronauts have taken part in flight studies involving sleep and circadian
rhythms and have taken self-administered tests of cognitive ability, maintained
diaries, and provided other information from orbit.^50 Compared to those of earlier
years, many of today’s astronauts are more willing to participate in ground-based
and in-flight studies, given proper assurances of confidentiality.
We suggest that the NASA-Mir missions opened a window of opportunity for
fruitful reevaluation of the role of behavior, including psychosocial adaptation, in
U.S. space missions. When extended-duration missions moved from the abstract
and theoretical to the real and some astronauts broached topics like risk, loneliness,
and culture conflicts, psychological factors were brought into sharp focus. In pol-
icy studies, a window of opportunity opens when a major, unexpected catastrophe
(known as a focusing event) becomes known to policy-makers and the public at the
same time.^51 Certainly, minor problems on Mir were far removed from catastrophic,
- A. A. Harrison, “New Directions in Spaceflight Behavioral Health: A Workshop
Integrating Research and Application,” Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine 76, no. 6,
sect. II (June 2005): B3–B12. - A. D. Kelly and N. Kanas, “Crewmember Communications in Space: A Survey of
Astronauts and Cosmonauts,” Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine 63 (1992): 721–
726; A. D. Kelly and N. Kanas, “Leisure Time Activities in Space: A Survey of Astronauts
and Cosmonauts,” Acta Astronautica 32 (1993): 451–457; A. D. Kelly and N. Kanas,
“Communication Between Space Crews and Ground Personnel: A Survey of Astronauts and
Cosmonauts,” Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine 64 (1993): 795–800. - M. M. Mallis and C. W. DeRoshia, “Circadian Rhythms, Sleep, and Performance in
Space,” Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine 76, no. 6, sect. II (June 2005): B94–
B107; R. L. Kane, P. Short, W. E. Sipes, and C. F. Flynn, “Development and Validation of
the Spaceflight Cognitive Assessment Tool for Windows (WinSCAT),” Aviation, Space, and
Environmental Medicine 76, no. 6, sect. II (June 2005): B183–B191. - T. A. Birkland, “Focusing Events, Mobilization, and Agenda Setting,” Journal of Public
Policy 18, no. 1 (1997): 53–74.