Psychological Support to Crews of Long-Duration Interplanetary Missions: History and Opportunities

The paper is a history review of the Russian system of psychological support to space crews from the early steps of its construction to the period of real orbital missions of varying duration. The authors discuss the risks in missions outside low Earth’s orbits and aspects of keeping up the crew’s psychic state in mission and after landing, and the risks the crews may encounter in the process of tripping to and staying on other planets. Analog studies are aimed to approbate and improve innovative psychological support technologies fitted with the revised concept of an exploration crew medical system.