Thse insights have been pulled from the individual experiences of astronauts and cosmonauts recorded in published first person accounts — journals, diaries, debriefs, and post-flight reflections.As this database includes the personal, subjective experiences from a diversity of flyers, they may sometimes contradict, but together they provide a more holistic, if messy, picture of life in space. To learn more about how these categories were developed, please see this related publication.
“…availability of the i-phone, videoconferencing, email, the view of the Earth, and the ability to broadcast our thoughts and experiences through social media has largely solved the major behavioral health issues for long-duration spaceflight of 6 months or less.”
“We watched The Avengers. It was a fun movie to watch as a crew. The BHP [Behavioral Health and Performance] folks do a great job supporting us and we are lucky to have them.”
“I also think it is best to give people their space and not push the social things on people every day. We all need a break from each other at times.”
“The best part of exercise is that, aside from sleep, it’s the only time the brain gets to take a break. …the time is accounted for already – it’s been given to exercise time, and so we feel we can mentally do what we want.”
“Life continues to be grand here – no mistake about that. But, after a couple of months, when one feels they are in charge of their environment, thoughts of home and family rise to the surface.”
“It is going to be a much, much, much different crew experience when you don't have a space ship sufficiently large to ever get away from each other during the day.”