Abstract
To provide for crewmember well-being on future exploration missions, understanding coping strategies that International Space Station (ISS) crewmembers adopt to mitigate the inherent stress of long-duration confinement is important. A recent retrospective survey of flown astronauts found that the most commonly reported psychologically enriching aspects of spaceflight had to do with their perceptions of Earth. ISS crewmembers photograph Earth both volitionally and in response to requests from Crew Earth Observations (CEO) scientists. Automatically recorded data from the camera can be used to test hypotheses about factors correlated with self-initiated crewmember photography. The present study used these objective in-flight data to investigate the nature of voluntary photographic activity. We examined the distribution of photographs with respect to time, crew, and subject matter. We determined whether the frequency fluctuated in conjunction with major mission events such as vehicle dockings and extravehicular activities (EVAs, or spacewalks), relative to the norm for the relevant crew. We also examined the influence of geographic and temporal patterns on frequency of Earth photography activities. We tested the hypotheses that there would be peak photography intensity over locations of personal interest, as well as on weekends.
Of nearly 200,000 photographs taken on eight ISS expeditions, 84.5% were crew-initiated. Once a crewmember went to the window for a CEO request, he or she was more likely to take photographs for his or her own interest. Fewer self-initiated images were taken during and immediately preceding major station events. Crewmembers were more likely to take self-initiated images during periods when they had more free time. Analysis indicated some phasing in patterns of photography during the course of a mission, although it did not suggest that psychological functioning was lower during the third quarter of confinement (i.e., no third-quarter effect was found). Earth photography is a self-initiated positive activity of possible importance for salutogenesis (increase in well-being) of astronauts on long-duration missions. Scientific requests for photography through CEO play an important role in facilitating crew-initiated photography. Consideration should be given to developing substitute activities for crewmembers in future exploration missions where there will not be the opportunity to look at Earth, such as on long-duration transits to Mars.
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
Due to limitations in the GLIMMIX procedure, a model fitting geographic interest could not converge. As an alternative, the GENMOD procedure was used. Given that GLIMMIX uses the GENMOD procedure to fit generalized linear models when random effects are absent, this change in statistical procedure is not significant.
References
Apt, J., Wilkinson, J., Helfert, M.: Orbit: NASA Astronauts Photograph the Earth. National Geographic Society, Washington, DC (1996)
Ball, J.R., Evans, C.H., Jr. (eds.): Safe Passage: Astronaut Care for Exploration Missions. Committee on Creating a Vision for Space Medicine During Travel Beyond Earth Orbit, Board on Health Sciences Policy, National Institute of Medicine, National Academy Press, Washington, DC (2001)
Bechtel, R.B., Berning, A.: The third-quarter phenomenon: do people experience discomfort after stress has passed? In: Harrison, A.A., Clearwater, Y.A., McKay, C.P. (eds.) From Antarctica to Outer Space: Life in Isolation and Confinement, pp. 261–266. Springer, New York (1991)
Connors, M.M., Harrison, A.A., Akins, F.R.: Living Aloft: Human Requirements for Extended Spaceflight, NASA SP-483, Washington, DC (1985)
Ethier, B.: John Glenn: First American to Orbit the Earth, American History (1997). Available at http://www.historynet.com/john-glenn-first-american-to-orbit-the-earth.htm. Accessed 13 Mar 2012
Evans, C.A., Robinson, J.A., Tate-Brown, J., Thumm, T., Crespo-Richey, J., Baumann, D., Rhatigan, J.: International Space Station Science Research Accomplishments During the Assembly Years: An Analysis of Results from 2000–2008, pp. 110–159, NASA Johnson Space Center, NASA/TP-2009-213146–REVISION A, Houston (2009)
Ihle, E.C., Ritsher, J.B., Kanas, N.: Positive psychological outcomes of spaceflight: an empirical study. Aviat. Space Environ. Med. 77, 93–101 (2006)
Kanas, N., Weiss, D.S., Marmar, C.R.: Crew member interactions during a MIR space station simulation. Aviat. Space. Environ. Med. 67, 969–975 (1996)
Kanas, N., Manzey, D.: Space Psychology and Psychiatry. Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht, The Netherlands (2003)
Lowman Jr., P.D.: Landsat and Apollo: the forgotten legacy. Photogramm. Eng. Remote Sens. 65, 1143–1147 (1999)
Lulla, K.P., Dessinov, L.V., Evans, C.A., Dickerson, P.W., Robinson, J.A.: Dynamic Earth Environments: Remote Sensing Observations from Shuttle–Mir Missions. John Wiley, New York (2000)
NASA: Skylab Earth Resources Data Catalog, JSC-09016. Johnson Space Center, Houston (1974)
NASA: Bioastronautics Roadmap: A Risk Reduction Strategy for Human Space Exploration, NASA Johnson Space Center SP-2004-6113, Houston (2005)
NASA: Gateway to Astronaut photography of Earth Web site (2012), Available at http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov. Accessed 13 Mar 2012
NASA: The NASA Research and Utilization Plan for the International Space Station (ISS), A report to the committee on science of the United States house of representatives and the committee on commerce, science, and transportation of the United States Senate, NASA Headquarters, pp. 1–20, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC (2006)
NASA: The Vision for Space Exploration, NASA NP-2004-01-334-HQ, Washington, DC (2004)
Robinson, J.A., Evans, C.A.: Space station allows remote sensing of Earth to within six meters. Eos. Trans. Am. Geophys. Union 8(3), 185 (2002)
Robinson, J.A., Amsbury, D.L., Liddle, D.A., Evans, C.A.: Astronaut-acquired orbital photographs as digital data for remote sensing: spatial resolution. Int. J. Remote Sens. 23, 4403–4438 (2002)
Sandal, G.M.: Coping in Antarctica: is it possible to generalize results across settings? Aviat. Space. Environ. Med. 71(9, Supplement), A37–A43 (2000)
SAS: The GLIMMIX Procedure, SAS Institute Inc., Cary (2006), Available at http://support.sas.com/rnd/app/papers/glimmix.pdf. Accessed 13 Mar 2012
Stuster, J.W., Bachelard, C., Suedfeld, P.: The relative importance of behavioral issues during long-duration ICE missions. Aviat. Space. Environ. Med. 71(9, Supplement), A17–A25 (2000)
Suedfeld, P.: Applying positive psychology in the study of extreme environments. J. Hum. Perform. Extrem. Environ. 6, 21–25 (2001)
Suedfeld, P., Weiszbeck, T.: The impact of outer space on inner space. Aviat. Space. Environ. Med. 75(7, Supplement), C6–C9 (2004)
Sullivan, K.D.: An Astronaut’s view of earth, Update (newsletter of the National Geographic Society’s Geography Education Program) (Fall 1991) 1, 12–14, full article available at http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/newsletter/uft/uft1.htm. Accessed 13 Mar 2012. Quoted passage available at http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/newsletter/uft/uft2.htm. Accessed 13 Mar 2012
Wilmarth, V.R., Kaltenbach, J.L., Lenoir, W.B. (eds.): Skylab Explores the Earth. NASA SP-380, Washington (1977)
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Edna Fiedler and Frank Carpenter for their encouragement to pursue these analyses. Chuck Green advised us on the statistical analyses and helped with access to SAS procedures. We also thank Cindy Evans, Edna Fiedler, and Nick Kanas for their reviews and suggestions for improvement.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Robinson, J.A. et al. (2013). Patterns in Crew-Initiated Photography of Earth from the ISS: Is Earth Observation a Salutogenic Experience?. In: Vakoch, D. (eds) On Orbit and Beyond. Space Technology Library, vol 29. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-30583-2_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-30583-2_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-30582-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-30583-2
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)