(frantic ephemeral music)
- That's some mind bending interstellar travel
from Stanley Kubrick's masterful 2001: A Space Odyssey.
- And while space madness is a common sci-fi trope,
well, you don't have to encounter a type three alien
civilization to go a little cuckoo.
(upbeat techno music)
- [Man] The cosmos is teeming with singularities, wormholes
and inhospitable worlds, all strung out
amid light years of void.
In other words, you don't have to turn to science fiction
to get your fill of space-related dangers.
You don't even have to venture
beyond the confines of the human mind.
- [Woman] Enter the paranoid, delusional
and outright depressing world of space madness.
While the subject continues to be a favored sci-fi
romping ground, scientists and psychologists
have also studied the topic a great deal.
After all, manned exploration entails not only
delivering healthy bodies, but also healthy minds.
- [Man] So here are five ways that space can make you crazy.
Let's start with number five, space loneliness.
Now, science fiction is loaded with tales of humans
that have to cope with this, many of whom wind up
establishing adorable or creepy relationships with robots.
- [Woman] So far, most manned space flights have been
too brief and wrought with danger
for loneliness to be an issue.
Astronauts fill their mission time with repairs
and experiments, they devote their free time to such hobbies
as forcing down food, sleeping,
and braving the indignities of orbital toilet use.
- [Man] Still, scientists continue to ponder
the possibilities of manned deep space exploration
and journeys to distant worlds.
NASA has studied how work, entertainment and food
can all conquer the affects of solitude in space.
Number four, gamma ray bursts, or GRBs emitted
by powerful supernova dubbed hypernova.
You can think of these as energy shrapnel
from Titanic exploding stars.
Sure, they're rare enough occurrences in the known universe,
but the radiation killing zone for an exploding hyperstar
is 6,000 light years across, compared to a normal star's
30 light year kill zone.
- [Woman] Increased spaceship shenanigans
would abruptly halt should the crew wander
into such a doomed portion of the cosmos,
but even smaller doses of GRB can have
serious neurological consequences.
A Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory study on mice found
that gamma radiation targeted a particular type
of stem cell in the hippocampus, the area of the brain
believed to be important for learning and mood control.
Without proper radiation shielding,
lengthy space exploration may be a recipe
for cognitive and emotional breakdown.
- [Man] Number three, bad air.
Clean air and clean water are obviously key
to successful manned space exploration.
If poor air results in a full-fledged air quality event,
astronauts have much more than a stink on their hands.
The result can prove deadly, or merely maddening.
- [Woman] A low oxygen environment can damage
both the brain's globus pallidus, which controls
subconscious voluntary movements in the hippocampus.
- [Man] A four-year Brown University study
gauged the possible affects of thin air on astronauts
by studying climbers during an ascent of Mount Everest,
an apt comparison given the dangerous
and extreme environment there.
The climbers in the study exhibited decreased cognitive
capacity and sentence comprehension during the ascent.
- [Woman] To help prevent dangerous air quality events,
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory developed
the Enose electronic chemical analyzer
to detect potential problems long before humans
could possibly sniff them out for themselves.
The Brown University study also suggested using
computerized conversation analysis tools.
Think of it as a robot designed to listen
to everything you say for signs of space madness.
- [Man] Number two, stress, astronauts have stressful jobs.
They have to worry about air quality,
the debilitating affects of low gravity, gamma rays,
mission parameters, navigation and equipment failures,
all the while knowing that a thin wall
separates them from an environment
in which human life is anathema.
- [Woman] NASA's National Space Biomedical Research
Institute is working to develop various means
to gauge crew stress aboard lengthy missions.
The Institute has studied the use of computer-interface
tests in which astronauts perform basic motor functions
on a joy stick and answer questions
to detect stress-induced fatigue.
- [Man] And finally, number one, crazy coworkers.
Take a moment to think about your relationship
with your coworkers, even under the best of circumstances
it's not all birthday cupcakes and funny email forwards.
Occasionally you have to put up some mental blinders,
take a breather, or even a stroll down to Human Resources.
In space, however, none of these sanity savers
is generally an option.
- [Woman] Ideally, any crew member taking an extended
space flight will have trained extensively with each other.
Personality conflicts will have been overcome
and any psychological problems long dealt with.
When fatigue, stress, poor oxygen, radiation,
sensory deprivation and loneliness set in,
firmly-ingrained professionalism should enable everyone
to make it through the bumpy ride.
- [Man] Of course, when all that fails,
we have mechanical dogs, robopsychologists
and a world of pharmaceuticals to fall back on.
According to a 2007 Associated Press report,
astronauts actually keep a few tranquilizers on hand
in case anyone goes suicidal or psychotic in space.
- [Woman] In the words of Carl Sagan, "The sky calls to us.
"If we do not destroy ourselves,
"we will one day venture to the stars."
- [Man] But will our minds survive the trip?
So what about you, how do you think future space travelers
will cope with these sort of dangers?
- And what's your favorite space madness sequence in a film?
Let us know in the comments below.
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