Mental Well-Being in Space

Science in Space: August 2024

Life on the International Space Station is quite different from life on the ground. Crew members experience multiple sunrises and sunsets each day, spend their time in a confined space, have packed schedules, and deal with microgravity.

These and other conditions during spaceflight can negatively affect the performance and well-being of crew members. Many studies on the space station work to characterize and understand those effects and others try out new technologies and practices to help counter them.

Light Up My Life

A current investigation from ESA (European Space Agency), Circadian Light tests a new lighting system to help astronauts maintain a more normal daily or circadian rhythm. An LED panel automatically and gradually changes the light spectrum and varies from day to day to better mimic natural conditions on Earth. The study seeks insight into this system’s effect on circadian rhythm regulation, sleep, stress, and overall well-being of crew members. The findings also could reveal ways to improve lighting for shift workers and those in extreme or remote environments.

Daily Rhythms

An earlier ESA investigation, Circadian Rhythms, examined how daily rhythms change during long-duration spaceflight and its non-24-hour cycles of light and dark. This understanding could support countermeasures to improve performance and health on future missions.

A well-established way to determine circadian rhythms is by continuously recording core body temperature, but methods to do so can be invasive and inconvenient. For this investigation, researchers developed non-invasive skin sensor technology for measuring body core temperature over extended periods of time.

Astronaut, Phone Home

Missions to the Moon or Mars will experience delays in communications with Earth – as much as 30 minutes each way from Mars. The Comm Delay Assessment investigation looked at how such delays might affect crew members handling medical and other emergencies to help psychologists develop ways to manage the stress of completing these critical tasks without immediate advice from Earth. Results showed that the space station could provide a platform to test communications delay countermeasures. The research also confirmed that communication delays increased individual stress and frustration and reduced task efficiency and teamwork, and suggested that enhanced training, teamwork, and technology could mitigate or prevent these problems.

This is Your Brain in Space

NeuroMapping studied changes to brain structure and function, motor control, and multi-tasking abilities during spaceflight and measured how long it took crew members to recover after a mission. Results published from this work include a study that found no effect on spatial working memory from spaceflight but that did identify significant changes in brain connectivity. Another paper reported substantial increases in brain volume that increased with mission duration and with longer intervals between missions. The researchers suggest that intervals of less than 3 years between missions may not be sufficient for full recovery.

Dear Diary

For the Journals investigation, crew members wrote daily entries that researchers analyzed to identify issues related to well-being. The study provided the first quantitative data for ranking the behavioral issues associated with spending lengthy time in space. Most journal entries dealt with ten categories: work, outside communications, adjustment, group interaction, recreation/leisure, equipment, events, organization/management, sleep, and food. The report provided insight into how these factors affect human performance and included recommendations to help crews prepare for spaceflight and to improve living and working in space.

Don’t Throw Away This Shot

Crew members on the space station take photographs of their home planet for Crew Earth Observations (CEO). These images record how humans and natural events change Earth over time and support a wealth of research on the ground, including studies of urban growth, natural systems such as coral reefs and icebergs, land use, and ocean events. Over time, researchers realized that taking these photographs also improves the mental well-being of crew members. Many of them spend much of their free time shooting from the station’s cupola.

Almost like Being There

ESA’s VR Mental Care tests the use of virtual reality (VR) technology to provide mental relaxation and better general mental health for astronauts during their missions. Participating crew members use a headset to view 360-degree, high-quality video and sound scenarios and fill out questionnaires about the experience. In addition to helping astronauts, this tool could be used to deal with psychological issues such as stress, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder on Earth.

Melissa Gaskill

International Space Station Research Communications Team

NASA’s Johnson Space Center

Search this database of scientific experiments to learn more about those mentioned in this article.

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Andrea Lloyd

The Summer Triangle’s Hidden Treasures

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The Summer Triangle’s Hidden Treasures

August skies bring the lovely Summer Triangle asterism into prime position after nightfall for observers in the Northern Hemisphere. Its position high in the sky may make it difficult for some to observe its member stars comfortably, since looking straight up while standing can be hard on one’s neck! While that isn’t much of a problem for those that just want to quickly spot its brightest stars and member constellations, this difficulty can prevent folks from seeing some of the lesser known and dimmer star patterns scattered around its informal borders. The solution? Lie down on the ground with a comfortable blanket or mat or grab a lawn or gravity chair and sit luxuriously while facing up. You’ll quickly spot the major constellations about the Summer Triangle’s three corner stars: Lyra with bright star Vega, Cygnus with brilliant star Deneb, and Aquila with its blazing star, Altair. As you get comfortable and your eyes adjust, you’ll soon find yourself able to spot a few constellations hidden in plain sight in the region around the Summer Triangle: Vulpecula the Fox, Sagitta the Arrow, and Delphinus the Dolphin! You could call these the Summer Triangle’s “hidden treasures” – and they are hidden in plain sight for those that know where to look!

Vulpecula the Fox is located near the middle of the Summer Triangle, and is relatively small, like its namesake. Despite its size, it features the largest planetary nebula in our skies: M27, aka the Dumbbell Nebula! It’s visible in binoculars as a fuzzy “star” and when seen through telescopes, its distinctive shape can be observed more readily – especially with larger telescopes. Planetary nebulae, named such because their round fuzzy appearances were initially thought to resemble the disc of a planet by early telescopic observers, form when stars similar to our Sun begin to die. The star will expand into a massive red giant, and its gases drift off into space, forming a nebula. Eventually the star collapses into a white dwarf – as seen with M27 – and eventually the colorful shell of gases will dissipate throughout the galaxy, leaving behind a solitary, tiny, dense, white dwarf star. You are getting a peek into our Sun’s far-distant future when you observe this object!

Sagitta the Arrow is even smaller than Vulpecula – it’s the third smallest constellation in the sky! Located between the stars of Vulpecula and Aquila the Eagle, Sagitta’s stars resemble its namesake arrow. It too contains an interesting deep-sky object: M71, an unusually small and young globular cluster whose lack of a strong central core has long confused and intrigued astronomers. Your own views very likely won’t be as sharp or close as this. However, this photo does show the cluster’s lack of a bright, concentrated core, which led astronomers until fairly recently to classify this unusual cluster as an “open cluster” rather than as a “globular cluster.” Studies in the 1970s proved it to be a globular cluster after all  – though an unusually young and small one! It’s visible in binoculars, and a larger telescope will enable you to separate its stars a bit more easily than most globulars; you’ll certainly see why it was thought to be an open cluster!

Delicate Delphinus the Dolphin appears to dive in and out of the Milky Way near Aquilla and Sagitta! Many stargazers identify Delphinus as a herald of the fainter water constellations, rising in the east after sunset as fall approaches. The starry dolphin appears to leap out of the great celestial ocean, announcing the arrival of more wonderful sights later in the evening. With a large telescope and dark skies, you can pick out globular clusters Caldwell 42 and Caldwell 47.

Want to hunt for more treasures? You’ll need a treasure map, and the Night Sky Network’s “Trip Around the Triangle” handout is the perfect guide for your quest!

Originally posted by Dave Prosper: August 2022

Last Updated by Kat Troche: April 2024

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Sols 4275-4276: A Familiar View

Earth planning date: Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024

The star of today’s plan is SAM’s GCMS, which continues our analysis of the “Kings Canyon” drill sample. As Natalie mentioned, this is a relatively energy-hungry activity, but luckily our last plan left us in a good position to not only complete the GCMS experiment but also fit in some other science around it. Having spent a good deal of time in this location for our drill campaign, we’re getting really familiar with this area in a way we don’t get the opportunity to when we’re driving more often. This means lots of geology targets both near and far — a collection to which we’re adding in today’s plan. Nearby, we have two targets for ChemCam’s laser spectrometer, “Meysan Lake” and “Washburn Lake.” Further afield, ChemCam has long-distance mosaics of “Milestone Peak” and our constant companion for many sols, the Kukenan Butte. Mastcam will also be getting a mosaic of the Wilkerson Butte.

While the atmosphere is always with us, staying in one spot can also grant us good opportunities for keeping an eye on the current environment. We currently have a great view of a nearby sand patch, which you can see in the image above, and we’ve been taking full advantage with lots of dust devil movies, including one in today’s plan. We can also look out for wind-driven movement closer to home, which we’re doing with a Mastcam observation of the drill hole tailings and a Navcam observation of the dust that’s accumulated on the rover deck.

It’s not just near-surface dust we want to keep an eye on, though. The amount of dust suspended in the atmosphere varies throughout the year, and we’re continuing to keep track of that with regular tau observations. The optical depth, which is usually denoted by the Greek letter tau (hence our observation’s name), is a measure of how opaque or transparent the atmosphere is. At this time of year, in the midst of the dusty season, there tends to be more dust suspended in the atmosphere, meaning we cannot see quite as far, and we say the optical depth, or tau, is higher.  

Written by Alex Innanen, Atmospheric Scientist at York University

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Sols 4273-4274: Prep Rally

Earth planning date: Monday, Aug. 12, 2024

The SAM EGA over the weekend was successful, and that means we’re well on our way to planning the GCMS (Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometry) on our “Kings Canyon” drill sample! GCMS is an energy-intensive activity, so we’ll be using today’s two-sol plan mainly for recharging our battery and prepping SAM by cleaning its GC column with high temperatures (like you’d clean your own oven!). We can still afford about 75 minutes of remote sensing over both sols this plan and are using it for our usual ChemCam, Mastcam, and Navcam activities.

On the first sol, ChemCam is kicking things off with a LIBS (Laser Induced Breakdown Spectrometer) on “The Major General” — some crunchy light-toned bedrock about 9 feet away (about 2.8 meters) — then will capture a long-distance 10-frame RMI of the Gediz Vallis channel floor to the south. Mastcam finishes off the first sol’s 72-minute science block with an M100 image of The Major General LIBS spots and a 68-frame stereo mosaic of the midfield terrain to fill in what’s left of the midfield with M100. We’ll nap until about 15:15 local Mars time, when we’ll wake back up to take just two M100 images near the RSM hardstop at the same timing as a previous mosaic to make sure we have continuous coverage across the hardstop. SAM’s GC column clean is planned between 21:00 and 01:00; overnight between our two sols.

On the second sol, we’ll have our second remote sensing block around 11:00 for 73 minutes. ChemCam is planning a second LIBS target on “Dewey Point” — a slab of light-toned bedrock about 13 feet away (about 3.9 meters) — a passive-spectrum observation of a dark float block named “Waller Minaret,” and another long-distance four-frame RMI of southern Kukenan butte to the southeast. Mastcam has just a single M100 image of Dewey Point’s LIBS spots this sol so that Navcam can complete some environmental movies to hopefully capture some dust devils and maybe even some clouds!

Written by Natalie Moore, Mission Operations Specialist at Malin Space Science Systems

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Wildland Fire Management Initiative Description

Background

Fire is a natural occurrence in many ecosystems and can promote ecological health. However, wildfires are growing in scope and occurring more often than in the past. Among other causes this is due to human-caused climate impacts and the expansion of communities into areas with wildland vegetation. These blazes continue to significantly harm communities, public health, and natural ecosystems. NASA is leveraging cutting-edge science and technology to better understand wildland fire behavior and provide valuable tools for fire policy, response, and mitigation. 

NASA’s Stake in Wildfire

NASA’s contributions to wildland fire management span decades. This includes research to better understand the role fire plays in Earth’s dynamic atmosphere, and airborne and spaceborne sensors to analyze fire lifecycles. Much of this research and technology is still used by wildfire agencies across the globe today. NASA is building on this research and technology development with the Wildland Fire Management Initiative (WMI).  

WMI leverages expertise across the Agency in space technology, science, and aeronautics to improve wildfire research and response. Through this effort, NASA and its partners will continue to provide tools and technologies for improved predictive fire modeling, risk assessment, fire prevention, suppression and post-fire recovery operations. NASA’s WMI aims to equip responders with improved tools for managing these fires

How NASA is Tackling Wildfire

NASA is collaborating with other government agencies, academia, and commercial industries to build a concept of operations for the future of wildland fire management. This means identifying gaps in current wildland fire technologies and procedures and laying out clear solutions to address those challenges.  

NASA will perform a demonstration of wildland fire technologies – including X – in the coming years. 

To provide a well-rounded toolkit for improving wildland operations, NASA and is tackling every aspect of wildland fire response. These efforts include: 

Pre-Fire 

• Fuel fire maps with improved accuracy  

• Tools that identify where and when safe, preventative burn treatments would be most effective 

• Airspace management and safety technologies to enable mainstream use of uncrewed aircraft systems in prescribed burns 

Active Fire 

• Fire detection and tracking imagery  

• Improved fire information management systems 

• Models for changing fire conditions, including fire behavior, and wind and atmospheric tracking for quality forecasts 

• Uncrewed aircraft and high-altitude balloons for real-time communications for fighting fires in harsh environments 

• Uncrewed Aircraft Systems Traffic Management (UTM) to expand use of uncrewed aircraft systems in fire response, particularly in environments where traditional air traffic control technologies aren’t available 

• An airspace awareness and communications system to enable remotely piloted aircraft to identify, monitor, and suppress wildfires 24 hours a day 

Post-Fire 

• Improved fire impact assessments, including fire severity, air and water quality, risks of landslides, debris flows, and burn scars 

• Ground-based, airborne, and spaceborne observations to develop monitoring systems for air quality and map burn severity and develop and enhance models and predictions of post-fire hazards 

NASA’s Disasters Response Coordination System (DRCS) supports all three fire response aspects listed above. The DRCS, developed under the Agency’s Earth Science Division’s Disasters Program, provides decisional support to international and domestic operational response agencies. This support includes products for understanding wildfire movement and potential pathways, burn-area maps, and impacts of fire, ash, and smoke to population and critical infrastructure. DCRS tools also provide assessments of post-fire flooding and debris flow susceptibility. 

NASA’s Investment in New Wildland Fire Technologies  

NASA’s WMI offers grants, contracts, and prizes to small businesses, research institutions, and other wildland technology innovators. Some related technology development activities underway include: 

• Testing communications technologies for incident response teams in areas with no cellphone coverage via a high-altitude balloon 60,000 feet above ground level 

• Developing wildfire detection systems and instruments for crewed and uncrewed aircraft  

• Funding early-stage technology development for remote sensing instruments and sensor systems 

• Developing and flight testing integrated, compact systems for small spacecraft and other platforms for autonomous detection, location tracking, and data collection of transient smoke plumes, early wildfires and other events 

• Licensing technologies relevant to wildland fire management and hosting wildland fire webinars to promote NASA technology licensing 

Partners 

The NASA Wildland Fire Management Initiative team collaborates with industry, academia, philanthropic institutions, and other government agencies for a more fire-resilient future. These include:  

• U.S. Forest Service 

• The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection 

• The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 

• The Federal Aviation Administration 

• The Department of Homeland Security 

• The Department of Defense 

• The National Wildfire Coordinating Group 

WMI Deliverables

Through these combined efforts, NASA aims to address urgent wildland fire management challenges and ensure communities are better prepared for wildland fires. NASA will continue to expand partnerships within wildland fire management agencies for technology development and adoptions. 

For more information, email: Agency-WildlandFiresInitiative@mail.nasa.gov 

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Hillary Smith