Psycho-Religious Experiences in Deep Space History: Astronaut’s Latent Countermeasures for Human Risk Management

Abstract

Current scientific developments have reached the stage where human aspirations of space exploration are not science fiction but a reality involving travelling to the Earth’s orbit, the Moon and Mars. In the second half of the twentieth century, international space agencies (like NASA, European Space Agency, and Russia) witnessed the professional experiments of official and commercial space projects, gradually unveiling the universe’s secrets. Astronautical research has predominantly been developed within the context of advanced materialism. The astronauts’ physical health has been protected by the technology of space medicine, while the socio-cultural aspect of psychological well-being was less regarded. As space-travel time is getting longer and more solitary, the evaluation of the mental environment of the astronauts during space travel or in technical crisis is necessary. Also, can the private sphere of astronauts help the public sphere of space safety or security? When and how can religious behaviour (or psycho-religious potentiality) be effective in the space community of long-term missions? This paper explores the sacred experiences of past astronauts in the non-scientific aspects of fearlessness, courage, stability, and confidence. It argues a new hypothesis that while the space team can theoretically depend on the visual and systematic data of the latest information technology (IT) and artificial intelligence (AI), the success of deep space missions (including Mars exploration), in terms of human risk management, is not always irrelevant to the strength of individual spirituality as an internal countermeasure of self-positivity in absolute hope. Furthermore, this aspect can be proved in the case studies of the American Christians’ willpower, Papal support, spontaneous Jewish astronauts, the institutional cooperation of the Russian Orthodox Church and its government, and the commitments of Asian and Islamic astronauts.