Abstract:

Manned spaceflight operates under extreme environmental conditions. Isolation, monotony, a heavy workload and weightlessness in space influence each individual mental experience, including the emotional state, cognitive ability and the mental health of astronauts. Meanwhile, interpersonal interactions among astronauts or between astronauts and mission control personnel will also have an effect. The current review analyzes many psychological studies conducted on real space missions, analogue and simulation experiments. The results from such studies have had a significant effect on selection and training, as well as with in-flight support and post-flight readjustment of astronauts. In considering the long-term manned space station project and lunar exploration program of China, future studies need to focus on mental issues in long-duration spaceflight, the characteristics of human interactions within Chinese culture, and finally the use of measurement methods for behavioral observation and expression identification.

Key words: space psychology, astronaut psychology, extreme environment, human interactions