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Recently I began asking astronauts who have spent time living and working aboard the ISS about the one year mission,
and what they thought the biggest challenges will be for
Kelly and Kornienko.
ESA astronaut and Expedition 26/27 Flight Engineer Paolo
Nespoli, who spent six months living on the ISS in 2010 &
2011, told me that now is a good time to an attempt a
mission of this nature:
also asked Doug Wheelock, who, like Nespoli, lived aboard
the ISS alongside Scott Kelly, about his thoughts on the upcoming mission, and what challenges would be faced by the
one year crew. He went on to say that the biggest obstacles
would be dealing with the mental stresses of living off the
planet for such a long time:
Finally, I recently spoke with Expedition 35/36 Flight Engineer Chris Cassidy, who returned from the International
Space Station back in September 2013, about his thoughts
on the one year mission:
“In my experience on coming home
day, as we were closing the hatch I
thought to myself “What would I think
if I was halfway done right now? How
would I feel? What would I need? To
be honest I felt a little accumulative
fatigue- when you’re living at your
workplace, and you can’t shut the door
to work and go home in the evening
and kick back and watch Monday Night
Football- you’re there all the time and it
eventually catches up to you”.
ICY SCIENCE | QTR 1 2014
I feel we need
to know more
about what
happens to the body
and what happens to the
mind when you stay in
space for a long time, so I
think that now is a good
time and I think
we should do it.
DOUG WHEELOCK SAYS
I think the
greatest challenge will be
managing the
physiology &
psychology of isolation,
emotion, & senses... it is
critical to stay in the moment