The following release was prepared by Baylor College of Medicine.<\/i> <\/p>\n
HOUSTON – In choosing the right mix of individuals for a long trip in space, there’s not a lot of room for mistakes. <\/p>\n
"On a multi-year trip to Mars, there is no place to take a break," said Dr. JoAnna Wood, an assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. "You’re together all the time in a very small space. You must have individuals whose talents complement each others, but you also can’t have anyone who leaves dirty socks around." <\/p>\n
Wood is leading a project for the National Space Biomedical Research Institute, headquartered at Baylor, to develop a model for putting together the right group of people for long-duration space flights. Personalities, leadership styles and reactions to certain situations are all being evaluated. <\/p>\n
Information can be gathered now even though long-duration space flights have not begun with the help of the Australian Antarctic Program. The NSBRI team is following the team of scientists and support personnel who live year-round in the Antarctic. <\/p>\n
"It gives us valuable information on how people adapt in extreme conditions. We can evaluate the influences of the group and the impact certain situations have on the immune system by studying this group of people who are completely isolated during the winter months," she said. <\/p>\n
Wood said many factors must be considered, such as how an individual reacts to stressful conditions. While that stress might be something associated with working conditions, it could also be a report from home. <\/p>\n
"There are people in the Antarctic study who don’t want a lot of contact with their families. For them, once every couple of weeks is fine," she said. "Others want that constant connection through e-mail or fax." <\/p>\n
How an individual will react to bad news from home is an important factor. In long-duration space flight, there are no provisions for returning early, no emergency departures. <\/p>\n
The same goes for the health of the astronauts. If an illness develops during flight, it must be dealt with by the crew. <\/p>\n
"We watch very carefully how the immune system reacts to stress and isolation," Wood said, "because a weakened immune system can lead to illness." <\/p>\n
Though the statistical model will not be complete for at least two years, Wood already knows the perfect group will not include individuals who are all alike. <\/p>\n
"That would be like eating oatmeal three times a day," she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The following release was prepared by Baylor College of Medicine. HOUSTON – In choosing the right mix of individuals for a long trip in space, there’s not a lot of room for mistakes. "On a multi-year trip to Mars, there is no place to take a break," said Dr. JoAnna Wood, an assistant professor at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[105,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nsbri.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10901"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nsbri.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nsbri.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nsbri.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nsbri.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10901"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/nsbri.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14885,"href":"http:\/\/nsbri.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10901\/revisions\/14885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nsbri.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nsbri.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nsbri.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}