Taking advantage of synergies between experiences of deep sea divers and astronauts alike, NASA and the US Navy’s Naval Submarine Medical Research Laboratory have teamed up to train astronauts to live and work in isolation from the world for extremely extended periods of time.
The only pressure-different environment on Earth is the oceanic depths. The US Navy has experience with submarine crews, who dive down for months on end, patrolling the Earth’s seas. Here they have to rely on their crew mates for a bearable and sustainable existence.
Evaluating these crews over decades, the US Navy has conducted extensive studies in this kind of stress management, and this is where the partnership germinates.
This study is considered very important, as it can help synergise the crew to better tackle the unknown ‘surprises’ which may await them in the first ever manned mission to Mars.
