Behavioral Issues Associated With Isolation and Confinement: Lessons Learned From Space Analog Experiences

• Main Author: Stuster, Jack
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: UND Scholarly Commons 2016
• Subjects: Antarctic; Byrd; Lady Franklin Bay; Von Braun; Antarc*; Antarctica; Franklin Bay
• Online Access: https://commons.und.edu/ss-colloquium/57; https://commons.und.edu/context/ss-colloquium/article/1061/type/native/viewcontent

The history of exploration contains many examples of serious psychological problems in response to the isolation, confinement, and other stressors of expedition life. Accounts of Adolphus Greely's disastrous Lady Franklin Bay Expedition, from which only six of 25 returned in 1884, affected all subsequent polar explorers. The stories of insanity and cannibalism among the Greely party were known by the members of the Belgian Antarctic Expedition 13 years later when they became trapped in the ice and experienced a deep depression that killed one man and drove another to bizarre acts of psychosis. Roald Amundsen, who performed his apprenticeship as an explorer on that expedition, wrote later that, insanity and disease stalked the decks of the Belgica that winter.Similarly, the radio operator on the Australasian Antarctic Expedition in 1912 became psychotic and his ranting threatened to drive other members of the group insane, confined as they were to a small hut in the most inhospitable environment on Earth. That experience led Douglas Mawson to recommend to all future explorers that, In no department can a leader spend time more profitably than in the selection of men who are to accomplish the work. It was in response to these and other experiences that Richard Byrd reportedly included only two coffins, but 12 straightjackets among his supplies during two expeditions to Antarctica in the 1930s. The relevance of living and working at remote duty stations to what might be expected of space travel has been recognized since Werner von Braun looked to Antarctic experiences when identifying possible sources of risk for his Mars Project in 1954. Cosmonaut Valery Ryumin echoed von Braun's concerns when he wrote of his Soyuz space station experience in 1980, All the conditions necessary for murder are met if you shut two men in a cabin measuring 18 feet by 20 and leave them together for two months. All fields of science and serious inquiry rely on metaphor when access to actual conditions is impossible. Engineers and ...