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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwqpC77XK8U
Interesting video about the challenges of being in zero G space.
Let's Go to Mars...Google on: Fast Track to Mars blogspot.com
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A long term space project might out live its nation and peoples. No doubt there will be mental hardships, the space missions have so many amazing stories many happy but sometimes events happened that made crew unhappy. Some guys in space might be able to "Suck it up, soldier" others won't put up with such hardships. The Crew of Apollo 7 were unhappy, grumpy, the crew members talked back negatively to CAPCOM a few times, however one of the crew had a bad head cold and there were concerns about NASA after the Apollo 1 fire. Apollo 7 Astronauts refused to wear protective helmets and then NASA had a policy of having none of them ever fly again. I think the meaning of 'Mir' was peace or world. I believe Russia also had a case of Space Madness, Lost Cosmonaut who protested and shut off communications with ground, , none of the Mutiny crew from NASA's Skylab 4 ever flew again but a NASA investigation concluded that NASA itself was at fault. NASA on Skylab did not include downtime in the schedule to allow Astronauts to unwind. However imagine a SpaceMission that would outlive the life of a country or nation. The MIR itself is interesting and it outlived the fall of the Soviet Union. If a colony is established on Mars or the outer planets it is possible the people on Mars might outlive their nations back home, at one time a Cosmonaut was in a SpaceStation as his country a Soviet Union broke up in 15 separate nations. There was an interesting documentary called “Out Of The Present”. It was made in the 90s and is a pretty good movie to watch, it shows footage of Russia's Soviet economy failing, protests, riots, police cars, tanks on the streets while at the same time this weird other worldly stuff is happening on MIR, they look down from a window on this peaceful looking blue planet, sharp mountain features, rivers that dry up and flood again, the Russian Siberian kamchatka peninsula, sandy deserts, unique clouds zip past, floating icebergs, the station its now welcoming 'Private Space Flight', Pepsi and Coca Cola are fighting to get their brands displayed on the Space Station, doing MIR commercials for multi national corporations while things collapse back home. I believe you can watch this movie for free on Vimeo dot Com it featured 'The Last Soviet Citizen' Sergei Krikalev and two others Anatoly Artsebarsky and a British private funded spaceflight by Helen Sharman, the Cosmonaut Krikalev spent 800+ days in space, he was on a Mission while the political world beneath him changed, the USSR collapsed, the Soviet currency the ruble’s market value collapsed, his Soviet nationality and Soviet passport no longer existed, the Russian GroundControl went on Strike, he remained in Outerspace and a new Kazakhstan argued with a new Russia about the prices and costs, no day of return Krikalev was stranded on board the Mir during the dissolution of the Soviet Union. He would fly again on Shuttle the STS 60 he also flew the First Expedition to the ISS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-60
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For Mars_B4_Moon re #2
SearchTerm:Soviet citizen in space as country dissolves
There are a lot of noteworthy memories in your post, but that one stands out as easy to find.
(th)
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Maybe this could also go into one of those health threads or long duration space flight topics
'Brains of cosmonauts get 'rewired' to adapt to long-term space missions, study finds'
https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Brai … s_999.html
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So what are the physiological things which life's prospective changes of being able to move independent from a large earth location to that of a tiny can in comparison...
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Pushing back against ground control because you are angry with something they did or want, is one thing. Psychological troubles from confinement are quite another thing. Two distinct things.
I cannot speak as to the Russian experiences with crews on Salyut and then Mir. I think those crews had less volume available per person than we now have on ISS. But, they were small crews, too, and that also has an effect.
What we in the US learned about this dates to Gemini 7 in the mid 1960's. That was a 2 week mission, doing it in the (same) diaper inside the suit for those 2 weeks. Doing that sitting in a cramped Gemini capsule, unable even to straighten your knees. It's not often admitted that the original intent was a 3 week mission, but they brought it down at 2 weeks, because those horrible confinement conditions caused Frank Borman and Jim Lovell to nearly crack up mentally. What you saw of the rendezvous of Gemini-6 with Gemini-7 took place during that first week up there for Gemin-7. Gemini-6 was up there less than a week. Things were going downhill significantly by the time that second week started.
2 weeks was enough to "demonstrate acceptability" of riding in a space capsule to the moon and back (at most a 2 week mission). Confinement in Apollo was a lot looser, and they had potty bags instead of "doing it in the suit". Those conditions were a whole lot less horrible. Borman and Lovell (plus Bill Anders) demonstrated very good mental health for their ride around the moon in 1968's Apollo 8 mission, not quite 2 weeks long.
Ever since, the NASA bunch has had much larger volumes available per person, starting with Skylab, for long missions. Those volumes are comparable to ISS before it reached its final form. That's how the Skylab crews did 3, 6, and 9 month missions. Shuttle had lower per-person volumes, but doesn't count, because shuttle missions were usually only a week to at most 2 weeks long, unless docked at a space station.
It's not only the volume per person, it is also the ability to get away from the others when you need to be alone, which is just as important as being able to congregate with others when you need the company. That's less quantifiable with numbers, but it is just as important an effect. And it is often neglected.
GW
GW Johnson
McGregor, Texas
"There is nothing as expensive as a dead crew, especially one dead from a bad management decision"
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Another factor is that astronauts in the USA and USSR (in both countries being drawn largely from the daredevil test pilot community) tended to be big alcohol users. When they went on a mission they were essentially going cold turkey! OK for a the first couple of days perhaps but more and more stressful as missions extended.
Pushing back against ground control because you are angry with something they did or want, is one thing. Psychological troubles from confinement are quite another thing. Two distinct things.
I cannot speak as to the Russian experiences with crews on Salyut and then Mir. I think those crews had less volume available per person than we now have on ISS. But, they were small crews, too, and that also has an effect.
What we in the US learned about this dates to Gemini 7 in the mid 1960's. That was a 2 week mission, doing it in the (same) diaper inside the suit for those 2 weeks. Doing that sitting in a cramped Gemini capsule, unable even to straighten your knees. It's not often admitted that the original intent was a 3 week mission, but they brought it down at 2 weeks, because those horrible confinement conditions caused Frank Borman and Jim Lovell to nearly crack up mentally. What you saw of the rendezvous of Gemini-6 with Gemini-7 took place during that first week up there for Gemin-7. Gemini-6 was up there less than a week. Things were going downhill significantly by the time that second week started.
2 weeks was enough to "demonstrate acceptability" of riding in a space capsule to the moon and back (at most a 2 week mission). Confinement in Apollo was a lot looser, and they had potty bags instead of "doing it in the suit". Those conditions were a whole lot less horrible. Borman and Lovell (plus Bill Anders) demonstrated very good mental health for their ride around the moon in 1968's Apollo 8 mission, not quite 2 weeks long.
Ever since, the NASA bunch has had much larger volumes available per person, starting with Skylab, for long missions. Those volumes are comparable to ISS before it reached its final form. That's how the Skylab crews did 3, 6, and 9 month missions. Shuttle had lower per-person volumes, but doesn't count, because shuttle missions were usually only a week to at most 2 weeks long, unless docked at a space station.
It's not only the volume per person, it is also the ability to get away from the others when you need to be alone, which is just as important as being able to congregate with others when you need the company. That's less quantifiable with numbers, but it is just as important an effect. And it is often neglected.
GW
Let's Go to Mars...Google on: Fast Track to Mars blogspot.com
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Louis brings up a good point about substance use / abuse. Any kind of addiction will wreak havoc on the mental state of someone deprived of their drug of choice. However, more to GW's point, you can only sit in your own soil for so long before you lose your marbles. That is something the NVA did to American POWs during the Viet Nam War. Personal space is important for long duration missions, as well as not sitting in your own filth.
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