While you are in space, could you keep a diary?
That is the unusual request that of Anacapa Sciences in Santa Barbara, California, has been making of NASA astronauts for the last decade.
NASA wants to learn how to keep astronauts happy during future missions. 鈥淚t鈥檚 all based on the assumption that the more someone writes about a topic, the more important it is to them at that time,鈥� says Stuster, who presented his at a in Houston last month. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 want to stress astronauts to the point of breaking, so we need to know the limits.鈥�
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A specialist in the psychological effects of isolation, Stuster used his previous studies of people who spent long periods on tropical islands or Antarctica as the foundation for the astronaut diary experiment. Astronauts who agree to participate must write in their journals at least three times a week. The diaries are anonymised, but Stuster is free to publish excerpts.
As well as helping with the design of future missions, the diaries provide a unique glimpse into the joys and frustrations of life in space. We combed through the snippets published so far 鈥� all written by astronauts onboard the International Space Station between 2003 and 2010 鈥� and, grouping our favourite quotes according to their content, found that six clear themes emerged.
1. Houston, you are so annoying
(Image: Robert Markowitz/NASA/JSC)
鈥淚nteresting, how you can be on top of the world one moment (literally) and then be completely demoralised the next, because of what is said on the ground.鈥�
鈥淚 was awakened in the middle of the night by the ground telling me to close the shutter on the lab window. It is beyond me why it couldn鈥檛 wait until wake-up time.鈥�
鈥淪unday is meant to be a day of rest, but somehow Houston managed to make it feel like Monday.鈥�
2. Food, food and more food
(Image: NASA)
鈥淣o one ever told me that there are practically no tortillas onboard, even though everyone knows they are incredibly popular for eating just about anything.鈥�
鈥淥ne last funny story 鈥� during the first month of our stay, I noted that the labelling on two types of food packets were backwards: 鈥楤eef Tips with Mushrooms鈥� was actually 鈥楥hicken Teriyaki鈥� and vice versa. I reported this to the food people and they thanked me for pointing out the labelling error. Today I wanted chicken teriyaki. So, I gambled that the labelling problem had not fixed for the new batch of food that came up recently, and selected 鈥楤eef Tips with Mushrooms.鈥� I was rewarded for not having overestimated NASA! The chicken was in the packages labelled beef.鈥�
3. Ordinary tasks are really frustrating
(Image: ESA/NASA)
鈥淚t was a frustrating day. The urine collection started disastrously first thing this morning. I think I got about 75% in the bag; the rest was all over me. Not a good way to start the day.鈥�
鈥淚 had to laugh to myself at the procedures today. To replace a light bulb, I had to have safety glasses and a vacuum cleaner handy. This was in case the bulb broke. However, the actual bulb is encased in a plastic enclosure, so even if the glass bulb did break, the shards would be completely contained. Also, I had to take a photo of the installed bulb, before turning it on. Why? I have no idea! It鈥檚 just the way NASA does things.鈥�
鈥淥ne of the problems is that our training doesn鈥檛 really cover some of the basics of life in orbit that we need to have under control. We spend all of our time on emergency scenarios and spacewalks. Sometimes understanding how to live would go a long way to increasing the success of the mission.鈥�
4. Space is lonely 鈥� and that is a good thing
(Image: NASA)
鈥淪uddenly I鈥檓 really appreciating the solitude that I have here. It does help to have control of your own environment if you鈥檙e going to be isolated鈥� We are very lucky to be here [at]a time when the Station is so huge, yet there are only three of us to share it. This is quite a luxury!鈥�
鈥淭his journal would be really different, if we did not have so much ability for communications. We would fall into our routines, oblivious of all the bustle and gossip on Earth, and time would fly all the faster, never distracted to worry about whether someone is going to reply in a day or so! Comm is both a blessing and a curse. Maybe JPL [NASA鈥檚 in California, which runs robotic space missions] scientists are better off in some ways. They have to treasure the meagre flow of bits they receive, like I used to treasure the infrequent scented letters from girls, with long gaps of mystery and anticipation in between. Oh, the good old days when people wrote letters.鈥�
Clarification. Stuster says: 鈥淭hat astronaut was among the first to have the benefits of the 鈥業P Phone鈥�, a semi-normal telephonic connection with Earth that enables frequent, astronaut-initiated, real-time communications with friends and family, something that was not available on the space shuttle or the early ISS missions. He was comparing that capability to the conditions of JPL scientists who communicate with spacecraft on Mars and receive sporadic and delayed packets of data, much like traditional letters sent and received through the mail.鈥�
5. Sci-fi resonates in a whole new way
(Image: MGM/UA/The Kobal Collection)
鈥淚 have been looking at the Earth, from the point of view of a visiting extraterrestrial. Where would I put down, and how would I go about making contact? The least dangerous thing would be to board the International Space Station and talk to those people first.鈥�
鈥淭he movie [the sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey] was fun to watch because it was about a joint US-Russian mission. So we were a joint US-Russian crew watching a joint US-Russian crew, and enjoying all the inter-cultural exchanges and how they were portrayed in the movie鈥� It really is amazing that we are here, Russians and Americans, on a massive international spaceship. We might not be orbiting Jupiter, but 40 years after 2001 came out, the barely imaginable has become absolutely real.鈥�
6. Space = Wow (But I still miss you, Earth)
(Image: ESA/NASA)
鈥淚 think I鈥檓 going to spend the rest of my life trying to understand what I saw here every day for 6 months. It鈥檚 become a ritual for me, on my way home from the Service Module at night, to take a detour and stop in the Russian Docking Compartment to stare out the window before I go to bed. The view is awe-inspiring and beyond comprehension.鈥�
鈥淲ith time on my hands for half an hour, I feel slightly melancholy, for some reason鈥� Space seems to somehow amplify our emotions, positive or negative, however they might be. Maybe it is the remoteness, or the beautiful scene outside, or a consciousness that we are in a unique situation, benefiting from the work of others. News stories have powerful emotional impacts on me.鈥�
鈥淚t was an amazing sight to see the Shuttle pull into view below the Station鈥�. It brought tears to my eyes, and I couldn鈥檛 help but think of it as my ride home at that moment.鈥�
