How to deal with spaced-out astronauts
By William Atkins
Sunday, 25 February 2007
According to a NASA official, NASA has previously written a detailed
set of procedures for dealing with suicidal or psychotic astronauts while
in space.
Based on Associated Press (AP) information appearing on Fox News,
the basic procedure states to bind the wrists and ankles with tape, wrap
the body with a bungee, and, if necessary, administer tranquilizing
medicines.
NASA spokesperson James Hartsfield, at the Johnson Space Center in
Houston, Texas, stated that NASA and its Russian counterpart, the Russian
Federal Space Agency, both created instructions for the International
Space Station (ISS) in 2001. Procedures for Space Shuttle astronauts are
also available. The ISS instructions contain 1,051 pages for dealing with
what NASA considers every possible adverse medical circumstance in space.
Behavioral emergencies, themselves, cover five pages of the manual. The
U.S. military also has similar procedures for the containment of unstable
crewmembers in unsettling or dangerous situations.
NASA is especially concerned with unstable astronauts in space
because such an ill person could risk the successful completion of the
mission and, more importantly, jeopardize the well being and lives of the
other astronauts.
According to NASA officials, the International Space Station has
medical kits onboard that contain medicines such as tranquilizers and
anti-anxiety, anti-depression, and anti-psychotic medications, while the
Space Shuttles contain kits filled with all of the above medicines except
anti-depression drugs (since they generally take numerous weeks to become
effective within the human body and the duration of Shuttle missions is
less than that period of time).
From September 4, 2000, the complete three-page instruction entitled
"Behavioral-Acute Psychosis (ISS MED/3A-ALL/FIN)" is stated in full at:
http://www.spaceref.com/iss/medical/8441.acute.psychosis.pdf
For a history of extended space flight entitled "LIVING ALOFT: Human
Requirements for Extended Spaceflight", from the 1985 NASA Headquarters
document TL873.C66 1985 302 85-5149, go to:
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-483/contents.htm.
http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/9895/1066/
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