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formerastronautandmedic,hasstudiedthisproblemindepthandconcludedthattheis-
sueofcloseconfinementandproximitytoothercrewmembersonamissioncanleadto
majorpsychologicalproblems,withdepressionforemostamongthem.Fortheir'Bioin-
fomatics Road Map', which NASA use to try to identify and assess the risks to the
crews of exposure to space travel, the problem of psychosocial issues is given as 'Pri-
orityOne'forpotentialmissionstoMarsandworkingonaninternational spacestation.
Inotherwords,thepsychologicalproblemsofasmallnumberofpeoplecoopedupwith
eachotherinarelatively confinedspaceforlongperiodsoftimewithoutabreakisgiv-
enthehighestpriorityinplanningspacemissionsofanyduration.Bycomparison,little
ornothoughtwasgiventosimilarpsychologicalissuesarisingfromlighthousekeepers
spending lengthy periods of time similar to those experienced by astronauts in space
travel. Three lightkeepers on a tower lighthouse in the middle of the sea were probably
the closest scenario to astronauts' conditions, with regards to their proximity to each
other and very limited scope for movement due to a restricted living area. The failure
ofatender,forinstance,tobringarelieftoalighthouse,thereforeaddingsometimesup
to another month to the length of time the lightkeeper had to wait for his leave, brought
addedpsychologicalstresstoalightkeeperwhohadalreadyservedafullrotationonthe
station.Itmayappearsurprisingthatnotagreatdealofthoughtwasgiventothisaspect
of life on a lighthouse, but, certainly in the earlier days, more weight would be given
to the more stoic type of personality who could shoulder responsibility and basically
get on with what would be considered to be a hard life without grumbling about it. Had
lighthouses continued to be manned up to the present day (2014), there is no doubt that
psychometric testing of some form would have been introduced to weed out potentially
unsuitable applicants fromapsychological pointofview.Bythelate1960smanycould
see the writing on the wall with regard to the benefits of automation, although it was
to be thirty more years before the last manned lighthouse was fully automated. Never-
theless, the first NLB lighthouse to be automated was Chicken Rock on the Isle of Man
in 1971. Even at this point, new lighthouse keepers were still being taken on and their
interviews and screening process amounted to little more than questions about whether
they could cook plus one or two general questions about themselves. One newly ap-
pointedlightkeeper spokeofbeingbackoutonthestreetinfrontoftheheadquarterson
George Street amazed at how short the interview had actually been.
From the foregoing, it can be seen that there is therefore plenty of potential for the
build-up of tension. Most of the tension, depression and any other psychological issues
would dissipate themselves in the form of arguments, pranks and other ways of letting
off steam through hobbies and work. However, the potential was there for less stable
personalities, who were unable to focus their thoughts and energies in other directions,
toturntoviolencewhentensionsboiledover.Ithastobesaidthatthiswouldrarelyhap-
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