On Orbit and Beyond

As we stand poised on the verge of a new era of spaceflight, we must rethink every element, including the human dimension. This book explores some of the contributions of psychology to yesterday’s great space race, today’s orbiter and International Space Station missions, and tomorrow’s journeys beyond Earth’s orbit. Early missions into space were typically brief, and crews were small, often drawn from a single nation. As international cooperation in space exploration has increased over the decades, the challenges of communicating across cultural boundaries and dealing with interpersonal conflicts have become all the more important, requiring different coping skills and sensibilities than “the right stuff” expected of early astronauts. As astronauts travel to asteroids or establish a permanent colony on the Moon, with the eventual goal of reaching Mars, the duration of expeditions will increase markedly, as will the psychosocial stresses. Away from their home planet for extended times, future spacefarers will need to be increasingly self-sufficient, while simultaneously dealing with the complexities of heterogeneous, multicultural crews.

"On Orbit and Beyond: Psychological Perspectives on Human Spaceflight," the second, considerably expanded edition of "Psychology of Space Exploration: Contemporary Research in Historical Perspective," provides an analysis of these and other challenges facing future space explorers while at the same time presenting new empirical research on topics ranging from simulation studies of commercial spaceflights to the psychological benefits of viewing Earth from space. This second edition includes an all new section exploring the challenges astronauts will encounter as they travel to asteroids, Mars, Saturn, and the stars, requiring an unprecedented level of autonomy. Updated essays discuss the increasingly important role of China in human spaceflight. In addition to examining contemporarypsychological research, several of the essays also explicitly address the history of the psychology of space exploration. Leading contributors to the field place the latest theories and empirical findings in historical context by exploring changes in space missions over the past half century, as well as reviewing developments in the psychological sciences during the same period. The essays are innovative in their approaches and conclusions, providing novel insights for behavioral researchers and historians alike.

From the reviews of the first edition "Psychology of Space Exploration: Contemporary Research in Historical Perspective":

"Vakoch has done a commendable job... . To say this book is a distinctive, often forgotten aspect of human space travel, is an understatement. ... there is the right stuff of the early astronauts. ... Thanks goes to Vakoch for his dedication to this field, and in bringing so many important contributions forward - in this book and elsewhere. ... Check this book out ... don't leave home without it!" (Leonard David, spacecoalition.com, September 24, 2011)

"The book ... does get into considerable detail about some research, and there's some jargon particular to the behavioral sciences. ... For those interested in issues of how humans get along with each other in space ... Psychology of Space Exploration offers an overview of the history of, an current state of research in, this field." (Jeff Foust, The Space Review, October 10, 2011)

"This NASA book fills in some of the gaps in the analysis of what, for brevity, is known as space psychology. ... What makes this volume different, according to its foreword, is "the depth with which the authors have engaged the history of the psychology of space exploration". This is designed to make it more accessible to those of us outside the psychology profession ... . most readers will appreciate the real-life examples and occasional humour." (Mark Williamson, Satellite Evolution, November 15, 2011) 

Douglas A. Vakoch is a professor in the Department of Clinical Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies, as well as the director of Interstellar Message Composition at the SETI Institute. Dr. Vakoch is a licensed psychologist in the state of California, and his psychological research, clinical, and teaching interests include topics in psychotherapy, ecopsychology, and methodologies of psychological research. As a corresponding member of the International Academy of Astronautics, Dr. Vakoch chairs that organization’s Study Groups on Interstellar Message Construction and Active SETI. Through his membership in the International Institute of Space Law, he examines policy issues related to inter-stellar communication. He is the editor of several published and forth-coming volumes. Dr. Vakoch serves as general editor of the book series Ecofeminist Theory and Practice, published by Berghahn Books, and he is a member of the editorial board of the journal Ecopsychology. Dr. Vakoch has chaired numerous workshops and conference sessions, including several symposia at recent annual conventions of the American Psychological Association on the psychology of space exploration and on environmental psychology. While completing his M.A. in history and philosophy of science at the University of Notre Dame, he focused on both the history of astronomy and the history of psychology. He received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology with a Quantitative Concentration from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. After finishing his predoctoral clinical internship in health psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Hospital and Clinics, Dr. Vakoch completed a National Research Service Award postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Psychology at Vanderbilt University.