CUriosity: Can humans handle the stress of traveling to Mars

In CUriosity, experts across the CU Boulder campus answer pressing questions about humans, our planet and the universe beyond.

This week, Katya Arquilla, assistant professor in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences, looks into the question: "Can humans handle the stress of traveling to Mars?"

In June, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams boarded the International Space Station (ISS), expecting a week-long stay in orbit. Now, they won't return to Earth until February after a series of technical issues plagued the Boeing Starliner space capsule they rode into space on.

If spending eight months on the ISS, which measures just 5,000 square feet, sounds like a recipe for frayed nerves, it may very well be. That's according to Arquilla, an engineer who has studied how long space journeys can affect the mental health of humans.

"On long-duration space missions, there are many stressors that create the potential for negative mental health effects," she said. "From data taken in research facilities in extreme environments on Earth, like Antarctica, we have seen symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress."

A future mission to Mars, however, could be a lot more than eight months, potentially as much as three years. Which raises the question: Can humans handle that much time in space?

Arquilla thinks so, but there are caveats.

"It will be a big challenge," she said. "There's a lot we don't know because we haven't sent people to Mars before. They won't be able to look down and see the Earth the way they can on the International Space Station."

In previous research, Arquilla and her colleagues explored the mental health consequences of that kind of isolation through an unlikely event here on Earth-the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, millions of Americans were suddenly cooped up in their homes with the threat of a major disease hanging over their heads. The researchers conducted a survey and observed that people with military training or other experience in stressful environments tended to be more productive during the pandemic than others. But those experienced individuals didn't appear to maintain their mental health better than less experienced people.

Arquilla noted that simply being aware of your own body, and knowing when stress sets in, can help. She has partnered with Laura Devendorf, a researcher at CU Boulder's ATLAS Institute, to assist people in doing that kind of monitoring. The team integrated sensors into comfortable textiles that track electrocardiogram (ECG) signals coming from wearers' hearts.

"Maybe I'm an astronaut on a mission and I'm tracking my own signals, and I see that my heartrate starts to go up," Arquilla said. "I could decide based on that that I should take a break for a couple of hours."

This research won't just help astronauts. Arquilla is also exploring how similar technologies could give people on the ground tools to detect and manage symptoms of mental health changes in high-stress environments. That might include wilderness expeditions, remote research facilities and military deployments.

She's glad to see people talking more about mental health, both on Earth and in space.

"We all, after the pandemic, understand the importance of mental health a lot more than we did maybe 10 years ago," she said. "Being able to recognize that it's okay to not feel at 100% all the time, and being able to give people the tools they need to articulate what is wrong, is really important."

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