6533b85efe1ef96bd12bfaaf

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Psychological countermeasures in manned space missions: “EARTH” system for the Mars-500 project

subject

description

Spaceflights missions have revealed that exist critical psychological problems. The Mars-500 project was an isolation and confinement experiment for identifying problems and solutions related to spaceflights missions. Medical countermeasures, such as physical exercise for 'bone degradation' are well recognized, but it is also important to develop psychological countermeasures for a possible 'psychological degradation'.Clinical Psychology has techniques useful for treating psychological problems, recent advances in Positive Psychology open up new possibilities for promoting resilience, and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have proven their utility for enhancing psychological treatments.In this work we describe EARTH, an ICT based application which includes psychological strategies self-delivered using a computerized program, and present the results obtained with the six astronauts who took part in the Mars-500 experiment.The results show that EARTH seems to be useful for inducing positive moods. Structured psychological countermeasures can be useful in spaceflight missions, even for resilient populations. Mars-500 was an experiment where a long-term spaceflight to Mars was simulated.Crewmembers were isolated during 500 day to study psychological and medical effects.Literature have shown negative effects on human health during spaceflights mission.ICTs have shown their utility in improving positive psychology interventions (PPIs).EARTH is a system used in MARS-500 that includes different PPIs to enhance well-being.