The monograph hy the USSR Cosmonaut-Pilot A. A. Leonov and Candidate of Medical Sciences V. I. Lehedev is devoted to a very complex and still little studied problem of the psychology of an interplanetary flight. The monograph examines the questions of psychological compatibility among the crew members of an interplanetary ship under the conditions of group isolation, the extended effect of weightlessness on human mental processes, the effect of sensory end information "starvation" on the appearance of unusual mental states, emotional stress, and the rhythm of working and rest. In their
book, the authors make wide use of the results of observations and self observation of cosmonauts during space flights, subjects in experiments on ground stands, and well as the researchers of inaccessible regions of the world.
The book is designed for cosmonauts, psychologists, psychoneurologists, philosophers, as well as a broad range of specialists working in the area of cosmonautics.
Translation of "Psikhologicheskiye problemy mezhplanetnogo poleta, Moscow, Izdatel*stvo Nauka, 1975, pp 4-248
NASA Technical Translation MSA TT F-I6536
Foreword Introduction 3
Chapter I: The Crew of an Interplanetary Ship 8
Chapter II: Sociopsychological Aspects of an Interplanetary Flight 24
Particular Features of the Interaction of the Crew Members in Controlling the Ship 24
Relationships Forming in Group Isolation 40
Methodological Approaches in Forming the Crew 47
Chapter III: Causes of Psychological Stress in the Relationships of Persons Working in Isolated Groups 69
The Effect of Asthenization of the Nervous System on the Process of Human Contact 69
Information Exhaustion of M a n 77
"Publicnees" as an Extremal Factor of Group Isolation 82
Chapter IV: Psychic Activity Under the Condition of Weightlessness 90
Activity of Cosmonauts Under Conditions of Weightlessness 91
The Protracted Effect of Weightlessness on the Human Nervous System and Psychic State 110
Measures for Protecting Cosmonauts Against the Deleterious Effect of Weightlessness 121
Chapter V: The Effect of Isolation on the Psychic State of Man 129
"Sensory Starvation" 130
Psychic States Arising Under the Conditions of Sensory Deprivation 134
Prevention of the Effect of Sensory Deprivation on the Mental State of Man 153
Chapter VI: Emotional Stress During aSpaceflight 170
Impressions of the Pioneers 170
The Emotional Reaction of AnxiousExpectation 172
Psychic Activity Under the Conditions of Emotional Stress 177
Chapter VII: The Rhythm of Work and Rest During a Spaceflight 190
Specific Features of Standing Watch in a Spaceflight 190
The Rhythm of Sleep and Awakeness in a Spaceflight 199
Conclusion 2l4
Bibliography 216