David William Kim Asso. Prof.
College of General Education

Have you ever imagined about travelling
into space? Where do you want to go
if you become an astronaut or a space
tourist? Would not it be exciting?

However, during the period of space travel, humans
have to endure observable physical and
psychological difficulties because of the
five major hazards: altered gravity, cosmic
radiation, confinement, distance from Earth,
and unknown hostile environments.

Two pernicious hazards are cosmic radiation
that badly affects the human nervous
system, influencing and altering DNA, cells,
and body tissues.

Prolonged altered gravity causes motion sickness, muscle wasting,
and changes to visual perception.
Unmanned research vehicles have been deployed to
Mars in recent years, including NASA’s
Perseverance Rover and Ingenuity Helicopter,
the United Arab Emirates’ Hope Orbiter, and
China’s Tianwen-1 Orbiter and the Yutu 2
Rover.

But long-term manned space travel
and colonization of the Red Planet will
require addressing the human bodies inside
interplanetary vehicles.

In addition to physiological demands, the
isolation, distance from Earth, and unknown
hostile environments present psychological
challenges. Uncertain conditions decrease
human performance, create conflict, and
reduce the sense of security; in turn, these
decreases increase loneliness, emotional
strain, fear, lethargy, waning enthusiasm, and
can even inspire violence. For Mars-oriented
space travel lasting 2.5–3 years, advanced
entertainment systems like virtual reality
and augmented reality, access to media
platforms like Netflix, AI pet companions,
smart sleeping systems, and private hobbies
(reading, simple sports, and drawing) could
partly improve mental health. Nevertheless,
could religion also support wellness in
space?

Astronauts, unofficially, expect the
presence of a supportive divine being who
inspires comfort and assurance in uncertain
circumstances. Actively appealing to this
instinct for religion might seem desperate
in emergency situations, but it could
dramatically increase performance under
stress. Crews on the virgin mission to Mars
will surely encounter extremely hostile
environments: lack of gravity (weightlessness),
high speed (about 39,600 kph), and
the absence of night and day. Science and
religion do not impinge upon one another.
They are different inquiry domains to
address human concerns for long term space
journeys and residence in space.

As documented by Houston’s Mission
Control Center, astronauts experience
measurable psychological stressors including
homesickness, monotony, confinement,
altered day/night cycles, unstable rest,
vibrations, and cosmic rays. Less measurable
is the lack of subjective comfort. Even
less measurable is the spiritual life of an
astronaut. Limited evidence suggests that
internal composure along with actively
establishing and maintaining peaceful
mind states are a potent source to inspire
willpower, passion, responsibility, and
perseverance. Space travel restricts the
comfort required for individuals’ internal
safety. Religion can inspire tranquility that
supports achieving space mission objectives
and attends to astronauts’ wellbeing.

During the first manned missions to the
Moon, NASA astronauts demonstrated their
own religious sentiments, including positive
relations to God, faith, and even the sense
of a divinely revealed universe, though such
expressions were not without controversy.

Figure 1: The Russian scenes of Koinonia in space
life (Soyuz and NASA), public domain.

Religiously diverse astronauts representing
space agencies from fifteen different
countries cooperated in projects headed
by the USA and Russia, including the Space
Shuttle missions, Soyuz spacecraft, and the
International Space Station. Multicultural
astronauts represented religious backgrounds
including Protestantism, Roman Catholicism,
Judaism, Russian Orthodoxy, Islam, and
Hinduism. While the abstract, ideological, or
subjective responses of star travelers have not
been explicitly considered in decision-making
protocols for future missions, my
research proposes a hypothetical space
policy that deploys personal spirituality to
cultivate positiveness, solicitude, self-sacrifice,
endurance, courage, and optimistic
hope, all of which will support psychological
security in the space community.

While space medicine, including drug
and talk therapy, is included and integrated
into operating protocols for interplanetary
voyages, the spiritual wellbeing of
astronauts should also be considered.
Astronauts’ psycho-religious experiences
have demonstrated no negative impact. The
prosocial nature of personal spirituality has
incredible promise to address discomforts
in space. Confidence, assurance, and trust
should not be underestimated. Religion
potentially boosts these qualities.