Science News

What Working Life Might be Like on the Moon

Now if you think your job sucks, and you’re longing for your summer holiday then be thankful you’re not working on the moon.  Although we haven’t actually got as far as setting up human colonies on the moon, researchers are busy figuring out how we might cope with lunar life.  For example, a professor at the Rutgers School of Business in the US is suggesting that living on the moon, or even in space stations, has long-term implications for mental health, including depression and anxiety, as well as heart problems. Researchers have already found that workers in earthbound isolated environments, such as remote Australian mining towns or Antarctic stations, experience higher levels of depression.  Professor Chester Spell also thinks that unhappiness might spread among space workers like a disease, especially as workers in these environments might only be able to interact with each other, and not with the wide range of people we can talk to here on earth.

24th Jun 2007