Space hallucinations

Sobrevivir junto con otros seres humanos en una lata que sobrevuela la Tierra, puede sonar romántico y tentador. Y cuando uno visita el centro de la NASA en Cabo Cañaveral, no puede evitar cierta sensación inocente de que sería maravilloso subirse a la estación espacial. Muchos/as hemos querido ser astronautas.Pero la cruda realidad es muy diferente. El sistema nervioso humano padece el aislamiento. Sufre la falta de espacio para uso personal. Sobrevienen alucinaciones. Recuerden la excelente novela "Solaris". Probablemente los científicos han detectado numerosas anomalías psiquiátricas en los pioneros/as del espacio. Tal vez no se discuten mucho en público para evitar la mala prensa asociada a cualquier trastorno mental.

"Perhaps more seriously, hallucinations have been associated with the breakdown of crew coherence and space mission stress. In 1976, crew from the Russian Soyuz-21 mission were brought back to Earth early after they reported an acrid smell aboard the Salyut-5 space station. Concerns about a possible fluid leak meant the replacement crew boarded with breathing equipment, but no odour or technical problems were found. Subsequent reports of “interpersonal issues” and “psychological problems” in the crew led Nasa to conclude the odour was probably a hallucination. Other Russian missions were thought to be have been halted by psychological problems, but the US space programme has not been without difficulties. During the Skylab 4 mission, long hours, exhaustion and disagreements with mission control resulted in the crew switching off their radio and spending a day ignoring Nasa while watching the Earth’s surface pass by.

 

Now that a voyage to Mars is being considered, scientists have started to study the effects of confinement in simulated missions, the longest of which lasted for 520 days of isolation. Over time, the grind of round-the-clock stress took its toll, and the most affected crew members became a source of dispute and conflict.

Living for months in a tin can, hundreds of miles from home, with few comforts and a stressful job, may bring myriad psychological pressures, but one additional factor might be the functioning of the brain itself. Studies have found that many basic mental abilities, like attention, task switching, bodily co-ordination and problem solving seem to work less well in space. The astronauts’ reduced physical exertion is likely to be a significant factor, as even on Earth heavily restricting activity reduces mental abilities over time".