Space Station Will Be Test of Endurance

When NASA launches its first crew to live aboard the International Space Station this week, there will be the usual fears of accidents and life support glitches. There will be concerns over radiation and thinning bones.

But actually living in space introduces a new basis for fear, a very earthy and primal one: the frailty of the human mind and spirit.

“One of the biggest showstoppers we’re going to have is psychological,” said JoAnna Wood, a psychologist from Baylor University and visiting scientist at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Astronauts, said Wood, can handle almost anything on shuttle missions, which have not lasted longer than 17 days. “Things get very different when you’re talking three to six months, or three years,” she said.

The upcoming four-month stay on the space station is a prelude to longer missions, and, many hope, to a three-year round-trip to Mars. If NASA can figure out how to keep astronauts healthy that long.

“It’s still a question mark how long people can live in space,” said Kathie Olsen, NASA chief scientist. “We look at the station as a test bed.”

With their “right stuff” mentality and their ability to endure everything from 9G forces to defecating into hand-held bags, the astronaut corps has long ignored psychological factors in space travel. In 1998, NASA was chastened by its inspector general for ignoring behavioral factors.

On the eve of sending Americans to live in space, though, there has been a sea change. Behavioral and life sciences are a priority at NASA these days; chief scientist Olsen is a psychobiologist.

The man many credit with the change is astronaut Norm Thagard, who spent 115 days aboard Mir with two Russian cosmonauts. On that trip, he found himself cut off from news of Earth and family, bored with too little to do and radically losing weight because his Russian rations included things he disliked, such as jellied perch.

In a recent interview, Thagard said that the negative aspects of his mission had been overblown in media reports and that his trip had been an overwhelmingly positive experience. But he did see firsthand the potential for how bad life in space could be without proper training, thorough psychological preparation and crew members who know each other well.

“You don’t need surprises in long-duration spaceflight,” he said.

Learning From Mir

Russians were the first to enter space and the first to live there. Cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov lived aboard Mir for 14 months. The Mir experience, however, has been rife with surprises--some unpleasant. In 1997, a fire blazed out of control before being extinguished. A few years earlier, members of a Russian crew stopped speaking to each other altogether.

“Mir taught us what not to do, and perhaps that’s a valuable lesson,” said Jack Stuster, an anthropologist with Anacapa Sciences in Santa Barbara who, as a NASA consultant, has suggested a host of sometimes surprising ways to improve the experience of life in space--including things as simple as sharing daily meals to making sure all crew members pay attention to personal hygiene.

Valuable lessons about life in space, Stuster thinks, come from what seems an unlikely source: 19th century sailing voyages and Antarctic exploring ships trapped in ice, with small crews, far from home, confined to small spaces.

“The technical differences between a small wooden ship locked in a polar icecap and a small spaceship hurtling through space are tremendous. But psychologically, behaviorally, the differences are very small,” said Stuster, the author of “Bold Endeavors: Lessons from Polar and Space Exploration.”

One of the main lessons? “Humans have endured far worse conditions [than space travel] and performed admirably,” Stuster said.

Small Things, Big Annoyances

But other lessons are not so positive. Among them: It’s the little things that can derail an expedition. As Wood puts it, “Endearing traits at the start of a mission can become major annoyances at the end.”

For Antarctic pioneer Adm. Richard E. Byrd, it was the conversation of mates that became “meaningless drool.” At a Russian Antarctic station, there was a murder over a chess game. On Mir missions, there have been arguments about exercise schedules and proper tool storage.

Tensions can flame because space crew mates cannot escape each other. “Privacy is an American birthright,” said Harvey Wichman, who directs Claremont McKenna College’s Aerospace Psychology Laboratory and has run simulations of space travel in his lab. “There are no places to hide up there.”

Space involves unique challenges, including the lack of gravity. It’s very strange being weightless, said Wichman, and difficult at first to do a simple task, like use a wrench. When faces get puffy in zero-gravity space, or are upside down, it’s hard to read expressions.

Space travel is also cramped. For now, everything that goes to the space station has to fit in the cargo bay of the space shuttle, just 15 feet wide. That means station denizens will live in a collection of connected tubes, a kind of human “Habitrail” reminiscent of hamster cages.

Moreover, contrary to Stanley Kubrick’s vision in “2001: A Space Odyssey,” space is extremely noisy. Fans used for air circulation can be as loud as “driving the freeway at 60 mph with the windows down,” Wichman said.

That could be one of the reasons why it is notoriously hard to sleep well, or enough, in space. That lack of sleep can impair performance and magnify psychological vulnerabilities, said David Dinges, a sleep expert at the University of Pennsylvania who heads a team of scientists trying to develop ways to help ease the way for those traveling to Mars.

Curing problems like sleep loss in space may be a long way off. Scientists don’t even know yet what’s causing the problem. “Could it be microgravity? Noise? Cramped quarters? Temperature? Schedules? Lack of zeitgebers [time signals] like sunrise or sunset setting the system?” asked Dinges. “We just don’t know.”

Keeping life in space smooth involves focusing on the very small things. Crumbs don’t just fall into a lap, they might float into someone else’s face--so the Russians have a tabletop that vacuums crumbs. “Fugitive lint,” as Stuster calls the shavings that come from astronauts’ clothes, can clog ventilation systems and overheat computers.

One of the most intangible, and perhaps intractable, issues that station managers will have to deal with are cultural--something the international crews of the space station will face. Some of these became strikingly clear during Mir flights that involved two Russians and one American. A new study of those pairings by UC San Francisco psychiatrist Nick Kanas found that Russians fared better psychologically than Americans, probably because they had more support in flight than the lone American flier.

In addition, Americans can find the gruff manner of Russian commanders hard to abide. Russians, meanwhile, report Americans to be fussbudgets--overwhelmingly concerned with following rigid NASA protocols.

The ‘Personality Paradox’

Despite these concerns, living in space retains a huge allure. Even those most versed in the dangers of living in space say they would jump at the chance to go.

“The picture is mostly not bleak,” said Peter Suedfeld, a psychologist at the University of British Columbia who has studied behavior in extreme environments for decades. Suedfeld is convinced that it is possible to prevent, or at least limit, many of the psychological pressures.

The first is something NASA’s already doing: screening out people with serious depression or other psychological problems. What NASA has less of a handle on is “screening in,” or selecting the best people for a crew. The ultimate goal would be to pick people who function well as a team, but today’s understanding of group dynamics remains primitive.

In something Suedfeld calls the “personality paradox,” most volunteers for space travel are highly motivated, thrill-seeking adventurers with little tolerance for boredom. Long-duration spaceflight, however, is likely to be restrictive and monotonous.

NASA psychologists recognize the paradox and say they now seek more “easygoing” astronauts for long missions; the ability to get along with others has become paramount.

By looking to the legacy of Antarctic dwellers, NASA is also trying to find anything they can to give those in space a psychological edge. What helps? Once again, it’s the little things.

One should never underestimate the power of food, or of sharing meals. “The importance of eating together once a day is almost a cliche,” Stuster said. “But it’s true.”

Astronauts also get a boost from news and fresh food that arrives on resupply vehicles. “It’s like the old days in the West--waiting for the stagecoach,” Wichman said.

Fresh food may be grown on the station one day in a “salad machine” greenhouse for lettuce, radishes and tomatoes, said Guy Fogleman, who leads human support technologies for NASA. But drains on station power remain a concern.

For now, station food will be “a compromise. Half Russian and half U.S.,” said Charles Bourland, who formerly managed food for the station. Astronauts have few complaints about the food, which includes irradiated steak, fajitas and shrimp cocktail. But Bourland has trouble making sure the astronauts eat enough. In weightlessness, astronauts always feel full, because food floats inside their stomachs. The space station will also offer astronauts more privacy--once the habitation module is attached in a few years. The module will contain personal bunks where residents can get away from others, have privacy to communicate with loved ones, and pin up personal photos and mementos to remind them of home. For now, space station dwellers will make do with a module that’s a combination living and work space.

At Johnson Space Center, a battalion of architects has been working to make the station as hospitable and comfortable as possible--despite challenges such as restrictions on materials like carpet that might give off toxic gases.

“You’re getting people to live inside machines,” said Kriss Kennedy, a NASA architect. “That’s not something we’re used to doing.”

Although NASA scientists hope the space station will teach us how to live well in space, psychologists say the station could very well have lessons for those of us back home on Earth.

“Viewing people in isolation and confinement is like viewing society in a microscope,” said Stuster. “We’re really all crew members on a spaceship.”

To read part 1 in this 2-part series, visit our Web site at https://www.latimes.com/space