Women's place in space exploration

A Mars manned space mission would be characterized by long-lasting psycho-social stress for its human participants. Based on the results of our and other authors' experiments with small human groups under simulated space stress conditions, and bearing in mind historical evidence of the changing role of women in human society, the differences of feminine and masculine cognitive patterns should be taken into greater account. Participation of women in astronautics should be reconsidered from the point of view of the roles of women as members of a space ship crew, as members of a space control centre and in relation to the family life of male astronauts on long-term space missions.