Astronauts lessons on how to cope in lockdown
Training techniques used by the space agencies can also help us build better workplace relationships
If lockdown and social distancing are not enough of a challenge, how would you like to be confined to a research lab with your colleagues for three weeks — 19m under the sea?
Or perhaps you would prefer to be left in a cave system, isolated from the outside world with no natural light, minimal privacy and limited equipment for hygiene and comfort?
Welcome to the world of astronaut training. Both Nasa and the European Space Agency (ESA) run field studies in locations with similarities to working in space: a “dangerous and unfriendly” place, according to Nasa’s website. Hazards include isolation and confinement, while behavioural issues are “inevitable”.
Though many are emerging from second pandemic lockdowns, heavy social restrictions remain. The performance techniques taught could help isolated workers who are struggling with a decline in mood, a lack of interaction and fatigue.
Frank De Winne, the second Belgian in space and the ESA’s programme manager for the International Space Station (ISS), which celebrated its 20th anniversary in November, offers reassurance. People can learn how to leave behind the things they enjoy doing and focus on what they can do, he says.
Simple actions, such as feeling the wind on your face, can help to reduce stress. In space, you miss “a lot of things that you can still do here on earth. For example, open the window and get some fresh air”, he says.
But what he missed most when he was the commander of the ISS in 2009 was close contact with his family. “The only way you could talk to your kids, to your wife and parents was by a phone and once a week you got a 15-minute session with your wife on the video. Today, it is a bit better, but in the past it was a lot worse.”
Now, in the pandemic, he makes sure he talks to his 88year-old mother regularly because she is “very much confined in her apartment. She is sitting there alone so I call her almost every day,” he says. “We talk a lot more than we did before, so you have to focus on these positive moments rather than on the negative ones.”
Astronauts know their time in space is limited and this knowledge can help to manage any feelings of isolation as they go about their dream job, taking photos of earth, running experiments or making training videos. But in the pandemic, the absence of a time frame can be psychologically hard, even as vaccine hopes rise.
“This is what is difficult in the current environment that we cannot really give a perspective because there are so many unknowns: we don’t know when this is going to stop. We don ’ t know when we are going to be able to all live our normal lives again.”
In this situation, routines are important as well as taking regular exercise. Even on the ISS astronauts exercise about two hours a day to prevent bone and muscle loss. If people are physically active, they are less likely to get mentally exhausted, says Guy Champniss, a UKbased professor at Spain’s IE Business School.
“Routines are key. Get these habits in place. Get out of the house. There are people who still walk to the train station and then home again as if they were doing their commute,” says Champniss.
These workers are giving themselves important “decompression time”. The “commute” can give them time to get into a new mindset.
“That decompression time is probably more critical now than it was when we were just going to the office every day,” Champniss says.
If we are living in cramped conditions, astronauts can teach us how to consider others. “Try to be aware of your personal space. Not what it does to you, because you can live with it, but what it does to others,” says De Winne.
On the ISS, if someone is untidy, their rubbish could float past their crew mates, which might “quickly become annoying ”, as colleagues would be left to clean up the mess.
“Maybe you can do this for a day or two, but not six months,” he says. Similarly, astronauts must take care when using tiny droplets of water to wash as just one globule could float into an electrical outlet, which would not be a “good combination”, he says, as it is difficult to separate them in space.
Actions such as this could cause conflict to build up, so reducing tension is key. Try to understand the other person’s boundaries and aim to accommodate them, says De Winne.
As ISS commander, he ensured the crew always ate together as much as possible so they could discuss what had happened during the day and make any operational adjustments. At mealtimes, they took it in turns to choose what music was played, to “create a group dynamic”.
Today, the remote-working environment poses different challenges. Being away from the office has ended serendipitous water cooler” chance encounters with colleagues, while meetings online can be less fluid than in real life, and exhausting.
Brainstorming sessions were part of the planning process that led to ESA and Nasa formalising an agreement in October to collaborate on the Artemis Gateway, a coalition to build a sustainable base orbiting the moon for lunar and deep space exploration.
The first meeting we had for this was in 2012. It has taken about eight years to prepare this programme. The number of meetings we had where we said: ‘ Can you do this? How shall we solve this difficult issue? ’ I could not imagine that you could do this in a remote setting,” says the ISS programme manager.
But De Winne’s training has given him the tools to tackle the impossible — albeit at a slower pace.
“If we had not had the pandemic, we would probably be further along than where we are today,” he says.
ROUTINES ARE IMPORTANT AS WELL AS TAKING REGULAR EXERCISE. EVEN ON THE ISS ASTRONAUTS EXERCISE ABOUT TWO HOURS
‘ TRY TO BE AWARE OF YOUR PERSONAL SPACE. NOT WHAT IT DOES TO YOU … YOU CAN LIVE WITH IT … BUT WHAT IT DOES TO OTHERS’