We’ve had a slower day, which was necessary as we’re definitely feeling the effects of isolation, with lowered performance, trouble concentrating and learning new things. This is why the calendar in our central hub saves us from getting lost here completely. We’re also writing journals every day as part of an ethnographic photo-research of our Media Officer, and keeping track of our moods with an application for regular momentary assessment, a part of a study in collaboration with EC Lab, of SWPS.
But there is a lot more ground to cover in terms of psychological effects of isolation on well-being. We’ve also noticed we’re getting impatient with the outside world, it feels like the metronome of people we interact with from Mission and Research Control works much slower than ours, and we were getting impatient during audio meetings. The meetings we now conduct in VR, using Oculus Quest 2 (as it is fast to set up and easy to use in office spaces) are much more engaging and no longer feel frustrating. We have a lot of insights into problems of people thrown into ICE conditions, but we know these effects are also what happens during space missions.
This is the first step to finding solutions that work, including VR activities. To take care of our well-being now we’ve become very creative cooks. So far, from our astronaut-healthy ingredients and an electric stove top we’ve managed to produce a mac&cheese, a tarik, various versions of curry as well as, amazingly, a pie and a pizza!
