Question: What type of extreme environments would you be researching?

Emma Barrett answered on 24 Sep 2022:

Hi! Great question, thanks 🙂

We research how people survive and thrive in environments that are extreme:

– in a physical way for example: very cold (Arctic and Antarctic), very hot (deserts), have unusually low pressure (high altitudes, like extreme parachuting or climbing Everest), have unusually high pressure (like at the bottom of the sea), or don’t have breathable gases (like in space)

– in terms of the dangers they pose to humans, like freezing, overheating, drowning, suffocating, starving, dehydrating, falling, being crushed, falling victim to disease, or to animal attack…

– in a psychological way, for instance sailing round the world solo can be mentally difficult because you are on your own for 10 months. Another example is being stuck in an Antarctic research station for months with the same group of people – even if you love them, you can really get on each others’ nerves.

So we research people in all these types of environments, and how they cope. Space agencies are interested in the lessons we learn because a space mission will need people to cope with similar sorts of physical and psychological hazards.