5 tips from real astronauts

Some peo­ple enjoy being in quar­an­tine, but there are those who find such iso­la­tion to be tor­ture. Mean­while, there are pro­fes­sion­als for whom long-term iso­la­tion is a stan­dard work con­di­tion. We are talk­ing about astro­nauts of the Inter­na­tion­al Space Sta­tion, who can spend long months in space.

Today, in the con­di­tions of glob­al quar­an­tine, we are all a lit­tle “astro­nauts”. Out­side the door of your apart­ment, an envi­ron­ment dan­ger­ous to health and life begins, where it is bet­ter not to med­dle with­out spe­cial need. In this sit­u­a­tion, expert advice can help. Astro­nauts who have spent months and years aboard the ISS tell about how you can sur­vive a cou­ple of weeks in your own apart­ment.

Peggy Whitson

Dur­ing her life, Peg­gy Whit­son made three space flights to the ISS. She spent 665 days and 22 hours in orbit. This is the record for the longest work in space among all NASA astro­nauts.

“Actu­al­ly, it’s doable, but it’s very impor­tant to be able to get along well with the peo­ple you live with.”- tells Whit­son in an inter­view with CBS This Morn­ing.

“Today, many peo­ple are try­ing to work from home, try­ing to be par­ents and inter­act­ing with fam­i­ly at home, so it can be dif­fi­cult. But that’s exact­ly what we did aboard the Inter­na­tion­al Space Sta­tion.“she adds.

Whit­son also talked about how astro­nauts are prepar­ing for iso­la­tion.

“We train our astro­nauts to improve com­mu­ni­ca­tion skills because we want every­one to get along well on board the sta­tion. You can’t pick a team, you just go there and you have to make the most of the sit­u­a­tion.”

Whit­son rec­om­mends using quar­an­tine to its fullest. “I would do the extra work I always thought about. What would you do if you had more time? Would you read? Maybe write or make art? Real­ize what you have long dreamed of.”

Anne McClain

Recent­ly tweet­ed by Anne McClain told about the skills that every NASA astro­naut should have. They are called “Expe­di­tionary Behav­ior” or sim­ply EP.

Accord­ing to McClain, “good EP” is to “speak so that you are clear­ly under­stood” and active­ly lis­ten to oth­ers. It is also nec­es­sary to learn the skill of lead­er­ship, there­by increas­ing “the abil­i­ty of an iso­lat­ed group to ful­fill its pur­pose through pos­i­tive influ­ence”.

Astro­nauts learn to take care of them­selves “includ­ing hygiene skills, man­ag­ing time and per­son­al belong­ings, falling asleep when nec­es­sary, and main­tain­ing mood”.

Accord­ing to McClain, mem­bers of an iso­lat­ed group should coop­er­ate, not com­pete. “Active­ly cul­ti­vate group cul­ture. Respect roles, respon­si­bil­i­ties and work­load. Take respon­si­bil­i­ty. Praise oth­ers for suc­cess”she writes.

Scott Kelly (Scott Kelly)

In an inter­view The New York Times NASA vet­er­an Scott Kel­ly also offered some wise advice to those who are going crazy in self-iso­la­tion at home.

Rule 1: fol­low rou­tine pro­ce­dures. “You will find that fol­low­ing a sim­ple plan will help you and your fam­i­ly adjust to life in a new work and home envi­ron­ment.”Kel­ly writes.

Rule 2: Don’t rush. “Liv­ing in space, I delib­er­ate­ly slowed down my usu­al pace, because I knew that I would be stuck for a long time. Just like we all do today. Make time for fun, relax­ing activ­i­ties. For exam­ple, I reg­u­lar­ly arranged movie nights with my crew­mates, snacks, twice reviewed the entire “Game of Thrones” ”- says the astro­naut.

Accord­ing to Kel­ly, read­ing, play­ing musi­cal instru­ments, keep­ing a per­son­al diary and, of course, wash­ing your hands are great ways to stay healthy and in a good mood.

Christopher Hadfield

Retired Cana­di­an astro­naut Chris Had­field shared his advice on his YouTube chan­nel.

His advice is to approach the sit­u­a­tion ana­lyt­i­cal­ly. First, under­stand the sit­u­a­tion and iden­ti­fy the real risks that you and your loved ones are cur­rent­ly fac­ing. After that, deter­mine your goal in this sit­u­a­tion.

“Once you under­stand the risk, define your mis­sion, pur­pose and com­mit­ment, take actionsays Had­field. — There has nev­er been a bet­ter time to self-iso­late. So many peo­ple have access to the Inter­net. Every­thing that has ever been writ­ten, lit­er­al­ly the essence of knowl­edge, is right at your fin­ger­tips. So take care of your­self, your fam­i­ly, your friends, and your space­ship.”.

Buzz Aldrin (Buzz Aldrin)

Buzz Aldrin is the sec­ond per­son to walk on the sur­face of the moon. In Jan­u­ary, he turned 90, so the coro­n­avirus can be espe­cial­ly dan­ger­ous for him.

Aldrin recent­ly shared a few words with the pub­li­ca­tion Ars Tech­ni­ca. When asked about what he does to ensure his safe­ty, Aldrin answered briefly: “I sit on my ass and lock the door”.

It’s time for every­one to fol­low his exam­ple.

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