Humanity has long looked to the sky and beyond, considering what it would be like to live away from the only life-bearing planet we know about. With the dangers of outer space travel and the lengthy times away, many researchers examine the psychological effects and how to prevent and alleviate those that are adverse.

Psychological challenges

Anyone traveling to outer space should be aware of the risks. Currently, staying alive means staying cocooned inside the spacecraft, spacesuit, or settlement. While planetary-scale engineering or genetic engineering may yet happen, Earth-like environments that are habitable for humans are a long way from either.

Scientists investigate psychological responses to long-term experiences of lack of natural light, spatial confinement, ambient noise, living and working with the same small group of people, and mental adjustments to the physical and cognitive changes induced by spaceflight.

Risk awareness and risk management can take a particularly high mental toll, notably in the context of isolation. Many actions or inactions bring the possibility of death upon oneself and fellow travellers. It might be too difficult to process due to an explosion or decompression. It might be a long, slow ending if the ship is off-course or if the settlement’s supply lines are cut without hope for rescue. People with a sense of Earth as home must be psychologically attuned to the possibility of never again setting foot on this planet.

Mental and physical fatigue are common challenges for astronauts. Disrupted sleep and body rhythms, never-ending rote but life-essential tasks, nutritional changes, and dealing with tensions and communication among the same group can undermine focus, stressing the mind and body. Everyone must work through their own altered moods and those of everyone else.

Learning to improve

One scientific method for learning how to improve and to hopefully prepare for the psychological challenges of space travel and settlement is to run simulations on Earth. These experiments are called “analogue missions,” simulating space travel by isolating people to observe their responses during day-to-day living and sudden challenges.

Analogue missions with analogue astronauts have been held in caves, on islands, and in specially constructed facilities. One historical example is Biosphere 2 in the Arizona desert, north of Tucson. It received extensive publicity when it ran analogue missions in 1991 and 1994. In 2011, ownership transferred to the University of Arizona, which operates it as a research and tourism site.

Scientific publications from analogue missions offer rich insights, informing preparations for real space travel. One limitation is that everyone knows it is a simulation. While a breach of the facility could lead to a sign flashing “Game Over,” the analogue astronauts know that they return to their lives rather than dying. A major medical difficulty results in evacuation and healthcare rather than a message arriving at the spacecraft minutes or hours later—depending on the distance from Earth—saying “sorry.”

Virtual reality, augmented reality, and the metaverse are used for training and exploring scenarios. These technologies can also be applied during space flights and in off-Earth settlements to help diagnose and cope with psychological difficulties, as well as providing immersion away from daily routines, which could contribute to prevention.

Different personalities respond differently. Caution is needed that these tools do not become an escape or distraction from others involved in, and tasks related to, space travel.

Similarly, the vast majority of us experienced some form of analogue mission during COVID-19 restrictions, mandated and voluntary. Food and freshwater supplies were rarely stymied apart from in places that are normally problematic; fresh-air exercise and socialising were mostly permitted, albeit with physical distancing; and online interaction remained in real-time, subject to bandwidth and device availability.

Environment Essential Reads

Irrespective of the advantages and opportunities for some during various forms of lockdowns, the negative psychological effects are well-documented, demonstrating people’s diverse responses. Another Earth-bound reality offering studies of varying reactions to confined isolation is the scientific bases in Antarctica. New supplies and medical help can be months away during the winter—and even days away during the summer.

These experiences, real and simulated, show that space travellers need to be selected carefully to ensure that they can deal with drudgery and emergencies over the long term in an environment in which everything is trying to kill you.

Toward the future

This is science across fields, including medicine, psychology, biology, and sociology. It covers only a smattering of the topics that have been researched in-depth. Long before the first satellite was successfully launched, Sputnik in 1957, fiction writers explored how space travel would affect people physically and mentally. This includes the physiology and psychology of people born off-Earth, generations removed from their distant ancestors who left humanity’s home planet.

Do all the scientific simulations, scenarios, testing, and theorising do much better than creative speculation? We will find out when humanity stops looking at the stars and starts travelling toward them.