t the adverse effects of spaceflight on humans. Associate director Ronald J. White says that by next year, the NSBRI expects to add a new research team devoted to psychosocial dynamics and group behavior in space. It is high time, some would say. The National Research Council criticized NASA's prior neglect of behavioral issues last year in a report entitled "A Strategy for Research in Space Biology and Medicine in the New Century." The "history of space exploration has seen many instances of reduced energy levels, mood changes, poor interpersonal relations, faulty decision making, and lapses in memory and attention," charged the report co-authored by Lawrence A. Palinkas of the University of California at San Diego and others. "Although these negative psychological reactions have yet to result in a disaster, this is no justification for ignoring problems that may have disastrous consequences." Since then, NASA's decision to confront behavioral issues has surprised and pleased Palinkas, a medical anthropologist and an expert on groups in isolation. "I'm amazed," he says, adding that NASA officials, whom "I never expected to acknowledge the importance of these factors, are doing just that." Skeptics are not holding their breath, however. NASA, explains psychologist and NASA adviser Robert B. Bechtel of the University of Arizona, has historically shunned the softer sciences in favor of technology. "They worry that the addition of unquantifiables like sexuality and psychology will somehow take away from the engineering side of spaceflight. Our task is to convince them that in today's space program--and for the future--there's room enough for both." ...
