What mental challenges are there for travelers to Mars?

NASA has announced that it will aim to emigrate humans to Mars by the 2030s. However, long-distance space travel often has health problems.

How will travelers deal with their mental and physical severity? 

Mark Jabrum, a psychiatrist at the University of Melbourne and a member of the Australian Society of Aeronautics and Space Medicine’s Committee on Space Life Sciences, outlined six major health issues that space travel applicants face.

Scott Kelly, an astronaut of NASA, sees a carrot floating in front of him in space on April 19, 2015. Kelly is one of the “One-Year” crew testing how the human body responds to long-term space stays on the International Space Station in preparation for NASA’s planned long round-trip flight to Mars. 

Some mental challenges are as follows

1. Space sickness

On Earth, a small gyroscope in the brain gives you spatial awareness. The gyroscope tells you when you tilt your head, accelerate it, or change position.

2. Emotional stress

Space travel is inherently dangerous. They are floating in an air-free vacuum in a sealed container, and they maintain life by a machine that circulates air and water.

3. Eye trouble

Small particles often enter the astronauts’ eyes and cause scratches on the ISS.

4. Cough or cold

Even if you catch a cold on Earth, it doesn’t matter much if you stay home. But the universe is different. In a dense, narrow space, they breathe air that recirculates, touch a common surface many times, and have fewer opportunities to wash.

5. Medical emergency

Fortunately, no big emergency has ever occurred in space, but astronauts are trained to handle it. For example, astronauts on the ISS developed a method to hold a patient on the floor below the ceiling to achieve zero gravity and cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Rescue from the ISS can be done within a day, but since anyone on Mars will be on an eight-month journey, Jurblum says, they need to be prepared to do something independently. How do you put it on a stretcher, put it in an airlock, take off your suit, and put it on a surgical table with a doctor, a botanist, and a few other scientists who can help you with your operation? Orthopedic surgeons on Earth may send you this method, but there is a 20-minute time difference.