Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) conducted various experiments to select their astronaut corps. JAXA candidates lived in an isolation chamber with other finalists for one week while scientists assessed their psychological wellness as potential astronauts. Under observation, the 10 participants performed tasks to reveal their leadership, cooperation, and stress management skills.

Interactions in JAXA’s isolation chamber remind Roach of grade school. Participants wore name-tagged pinafores, and none of their tasks were technical in nature. The scientists observed the finalists’ abilities to follow rules, levels of irritability, table manners, how they related their strengths in on-camera presentations, and curiously to Roach, what remained in their disposed meal trays.

Some trials were intentionally trivial to gauge the subtleties of human behavior: One of JAXA’s tests was to delay lunch by an hour to observe the participants’ reaction to unexpected changes. To simulate the fact that most of a space shuttle mission’s duties are repetitive installations, maintenance, and repairs, potential astronauts had to fold 1,000 paper cranes. This “forensic origami” (25) task measured each candidate’s ability to tolerate boredom and the lack of stimulation, a trait that both JAXA and NASA psychologists recommend in an astronaut.

NASA portrays astronauts as larger-than-life heroes to garner media support and funding, so Roach is surprised to find that many of the mission specialist astronauts she interviewed are ordinary and relatable people. Bravery and aggression, the stereotypical qualities of the test-pilot astronaut, are, in reality, less appealing than congeniality and sensitivity, which are desirable traits in a research team member. Roach contends that the process of choosing an astronaut for a space shuttle mission is parallel to choosing a coworker. Demeanor, not just credentials, is an important factor. JAXA scientists consider pragmatic qualifications, such as whether a candidate snores or complains too much or too little. Meanwhile, China eliminates candidates with bad breath.

Roach concludes that the astronaut selection is also political. The two JAXA finalists who joined NASA on the International Space Station (ISS) were experienced pilots with strong English language skills. They belonged to the “fraternity” (37) at the “elite military boarding school” (36) of space exploration.

Chapter 2 discusses other simulation projects that monitored the physical and psychological effects of isolation and confinement: the Mars500 project, based in Moscow’s Institute of Biomedical Problems (IBMP), and the isolation chambers at the Aeromedical Test Lab at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Roach also discusses astronauts’ accounts from actual Mir and Gemini missions, highlighting the psychological toll of isolation and confinement, which can lead to stress, anger, displacement, and depression. She argues that space is an unnatural and hostile environment where humans will expectedly struggle to survive in a place they do not belong.

The 1999 Simulated Flight of International Crew on Space Station (SFINCSS), consisting of a cross-cultural crew from Austria, Canada, Japan, and Russia, illustrated the failures of insufficient training on cultural and gender differences. Less than a month into the study, Commander Vasily Lukyanyuk forcibly grabbed and kissed scientist Judith Lapierre against her will. Then, the IBMP failed to respond to Lapierre’s report of sexual harassment and blamed her for the mission’s lack of cohesion. Participant Masataka Umeda resigned after the incident.

Additionally, the majority of SFINCSS’s communication was in Russian, leaving both Lapierre and Umeda at a disadvantage, but aside from this cultural misunderstanding, the breakdown of the SFINCSS environment points to the institutional sexism in space travel—Lapierre’s complaint was dismissed because she is a woman. Similarly, US astronaut Helen Sherman faced criticism for not being flirtatious, and Russian cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya, the second woman in space, received an apron from her commander in flight.

The stigma of mental health issues presents a barrier to psychological research. Many astronauts refrain from speaking openly about any psychological difficulty out of fear of getting grounded. In her interview with Alexandr Laveikin and Yuri Romanenko, the two astronauts who spent six months on the Mir space station, Roach learned that feelings of frustration due to the confined environment led the astronauts to project their anger onto Mission Control or manifest it as depression.

Roach concludes that living in space is aggravating, and emphasizes that the trip to Mars is a very long journey (an estimated 500 days, hence the name of the Mars500 project). Many astronauts, submarine crew members, and researchers in Antarctica attest to feeling trapped in their confines and longing for Earth’s delights. Roach juxtaposes the smell of gardens, the sound of a whale’s song, and the sight of a baby with the constant smell of metal, infestations of mice and lice, and for one team in Antarctica, the annoying smell from a researcher’s idiosyncratic habit of burning his hair.

Roach also addresses the topic of sex, considering the merits and disadvantages of sending married couples into space. According to some of her NASA interviewees, being married could put astronauts in the position of having to choose between their partner or the mission, and in the case of an accident, two lives lost in the same family could carry an extra burden.

Roach turns to the psychological effects of the boundary-less void of space.

The term “breakaway effect” (66) was first used to describe the elation pilots experience while flying at extremely high altitudes. For divers, the inverse condition is known as “rapture of the deep” (67). NASA recognized a similar reaction in their astronauts and adopted the term “space euphoria” (67) to describe the feeling of exultation from crossing the threshold of Earth’s atmosphere. Roach cites Alexi Leonov, the first person to conduct a spacewalk, and Gemini IV astronaut, Ed White, as individuals who experienced space euphoria, adding that White required significant coaxing to return to the capsule.

The fear of astronauts losing their sense of judgment in space was also an early concern during Yuri Gagarin’s groundbreaking flight. As a precaution, Soviet Mission Control locked the manual controls in his capsule and provided an access code in a sealed envelope. Roach mostly dismisses concerns about space euphoria’s dangers—both Leonov and White were more at risk from the technical difficulties and awkward mechanics of getting back into their crafts than their altered states of mind.

Roach discusses two other potentially challenging conditions. Astronauts experience spatial disorientation during their spacewalks, as their bodies are literally falling in orbit—a sensation that sometimes leads to “EVA [extravehicular activities] height vertigo” (70), or space motion sickness. Finally, the “earth-out-of-view phenomenon” is the fear that an extreme departure from Earth, such as a Mars mission, may result in anxiety and severe dissociative behavior. Roach shares cosmonaut Sergei Krikalyov’s response that this reaction is unlikely.

Astronauts in deep space do report a different type of anxiety at the universe’s expanding enormity: feeling existential angst when confronting the infinity of space. Roach interviews Vitaly Zholobov, a Salyut 5 space station cosmonaut, who described feeling overwhelmed by the abyss of space. In 1976, Zholobov and Boris Volynov had to end their mission early due to reports of “psychological/interpersonal difficulties” (73). However, Zholobov and the team’s psychologist offer a different narrative. On top of technical malfunctions that cut off their electricity, oxygen, and communication, the men lacked sleep and were essentially sick from overwork and exhaustion. Mental health, Roach concludes, was not a concern in early space travel programs.