Positive psychological effects of space missions

Being in space is a powerful experience that can have an enduring, positive impact on the psychological well-being of astronauts and cosmonauts. We sought to examine the frequency, intensity and distribution of such salutogenic experiences among persons who have flown in space, using a questionnaire we developed based on the scientific literature and first person accounts. All participants reported positive effects of being in space, but the degree of change varied widely, and some experiences were particularly common. Three of our five predicted attitude-behavior relationships were supported by the data. Response patterns did not vary according to demographics or time in space. Cluster analysis yielded two groups of participants. One group was generally more reactive and also placed a higher priority on perceptions of space than did the other group. We conclude that positive experiences are common among space travelers and seem to cluster into meaningful patterns that may be consequential for Mars missions. We consider the possible selection, training, and monitoring issues raised by our findings.     

A Pre-Landing Assessment of Regolith Properties at the InSight Landing Site

This article discusses relevant physical properties of the regolith at the Mars InSight landing site as understood prior to landing of the spacecraft. InSight will land in the northern lowland plains of Mars, close to the equator, where the regolith is estimated to be \(\geq3\mbox{--}5~\mbox{m}\) thick. These investigations of physical properties have relied on data collected from Mars orbital measurements, previously collected lander and rover data, results of studies of data and samples from Apollo lunar missions, laboratory measurements on regolith simulants, and theoretical studies. The investigations include changes in properties with depth and temperature. Mechanical properties investigated include density, grain-size distribution, cohesion, and angle of internal friction. Thermophysical properties include thermal inertia, surface emissivity and albedo, thermal conductivity and diffusivity, and specific heat. Regolith elastic properties not only include parameters that control seismic wave velocities in the immediate vicinity of the Insight lander but also coupling of the lander and other potential noise sources to the InSight broadband seismometer. The related properties include Poisson’s ratio, P- and S-wave velocities, Young’s modulus, and seismic attenuation. Finally, mass diffusivity was investigated to estimate gas movements in the regolith driven by atmospheric pressure changes. Physical properties presented here are all to some degree speculative. However, they form a basis for interpretation of the early data to be returned from the InSight mission.     

A Comparison of Techniques for Solving the Poisson Equation in CFD

CFD is a ubiquitous technique central to much of computational simulation such as that required by aircraft design. Solving of the Poisson equation occurs frequently in CFD and there are a number of possible approaches one may leverage. The dynamical core of the MONC atmospheric model is one example of CFD which requires the solving of the Poisson equation to determine pressure terms. Traditionally this aspect of the model has been very time consuming and so it is important to consider how we might reduce the runtime cost. In this paper we survey the different approaches implemented in MONC to perform the pressure solve. Designed to take advantage of large scale, modern, HPC machines, we are concerned with the computation and communication behaviour of the available techniques and in this text we focus on direct FFT and indirect iterative methods. In addition to describing the implementation of these techniques we illustrate on up to 32768 processor cores of a Cray XC30 both the performance and scalability of our approaches. Raw runtime is not the only measure so we also make some comments around the stability and accuracy of solution. The result of this work are a number of techniques, optimised for large scale HPC systems, and an understanding of which is most appropriate in different situations.