Do astronauts take anxiety medication?
Space station medical kits contain tranquilizers and anti-depression, anti-anxiety and anti-psychotic medications. Shuttle medical kits have anti-psychotic medication but not antidepressants, since they take several weeks to be effective and shuttle flights last less than two weeks.
Do astronauts get claustrophobic?
Spacesuits are heavy, claustrophobic and hot — an uncomfortable combination for many would-be astronauts.
What problems do astronauts face in space?
Increased risk of cancer and degenerative diseases, such as heart disease and cataracts, have been observed in human populations exposed to radiation on Earth. Health risks for astronauts from radiation exposure in space are mainly driven by long-term impacts.
Is the space station claustrophobic?
Astronauts are empathetic and don’t flap easily, are emotionally stable, and know how to stay – and keep others – calm in stressful situations. And there’s no room for claustrophobia on a space station either – astronauts spend months on end in an area about the size of a Boeing 747.
How does NASA train astronauts to survive in space?
Though NASA’s survival training regimen has changed over the years, the goal remains the same. It’s not really about teaching astronauts specific skills to use in the face of life-or-death danger. NASA has underwater spacewalk exercises, flight simulators and T-38 training jets to impart those kinds of lessons.
How did Massimino become such a good astronaut?
Massimino was guided by experts on the ground, as astronauts always are. But his steely resolve in the face of long odds — and his methodical approach to solving a difficult problem while floating weightless in the vacuum of space — was honed by the brutal regimen of survival training he had endured more than a decade earlier.
Who was the first American astronaut to spacewalk from Russia’s Mir space station?
Former astronaut Jerry Linenger, a Navy pilot who in 1997 became the first American to spacewalk from Russia’s Mir space station, still vividly recalls what those trials were like.