Depressed Astronauts Might Get Computerized Solace

alphadogg writes "Clinical tests on a four-year, $1.74 million project for NASA, called the Virtual Space Station, are expected to begin in the Boston area by next month. The effort is designed to address the onset of depression in astronauts while they are in outer space. In the project, sponsored by the National Space Biomedical Research Institute, a recorded video therapist guides astronauts through a widely used depression therapy called 'problem-solving treatment.'" Here's a related story from a few weeks ago. Those astronauts got it rough.

Re:Companionship

[Drakkenmensch]

NASA has a known hardline anti-sex policy... perhaps it's time they start rethinking that approach. Are they expecting to send a group of people on a six month mars mission (with the worst case scenario that they may never return) and think that sex won't happen? It is, after all, one of the greatest joys in life.

Re:Depressed astronauts?

[jonas_sten]

After a while you would become depressed because your money is the wrong color. man have simply not evolved to be happy. depression is clearly not a new fad. People hated their jobs in the 12th century and still do.

Re:Depressed astronauts?

[MindKata]

"After a while you would become depressed because your money is the wrong color. man have simply not evolved to be happy. depression is clearly not a new fad. People hated their jobs in the 12th century and still do."

An alternative interpretation would be, a job acts like a cage (retricting what you can think and do) and a caged animal feels depression, at lack of freedom. So its not that people are or are not evolved to be happy, its that people are not evolved to be caged in a job.

Sounds like its time you found a new cage! :) ... while its still a cage, the new surroundings may make it feel like a better cage.... that is, until you can find a way to live without the need of a cage... I'm still looking for the answer to that one, like most people. :)

Naw, drugs

[smchris]

Worked in Outland. Just remember to put on your helmet.

Or wall-projected golf and a nightclub.

Despite the "world's coolest job" posts, I'm more on the Philip K. Dick side that thinks months in a can will truly suck and they'll have ad agencies lying through their teeth to get people up to the mining colonies.

Re:Depressed astronauts?

[khallow]

An alternative interpretation would be, a job acts like a cage (retricting what you can think and do) and a caged animal feels depression, at lack of freedom. So its not that people are or are not evolved to be happy, its that people are not evolved to be caged in a job.

My take is that would be a wrong interpretation. The job isn't a cage in this example, it is merely perceived as one.