The Challenge
In an effort to stop the spread of COVID-19, many people around the world have engaged in prolonged social isolation over the past several months. With social isolation defined as the absence of, or reduction in social contact with others, long-duration spaceflight may offer a relevant parallel to the multidimensional nature of reduced or absent social contact, and the psychological underpinnings for the associated risk factors.
NASA astronauts are trained to live and work in the isolation of space, and other types of NASA professionals have experience enduring social isolation as well. Oceanographers and cryospheric researchers can spend months on ships or at remote locations conducting research. Terrestrial scientists can also spend weeks or months isolated in the study of local biology, ecosystems, or field work. For some professionals, social distancing is a normal practice, but for countless people, the experience of isolation is a new and perhaps challenging experience.
Even before COVID-19, it was recognized that prolonged social isolation can adversely impact our health and well-being. This is particularly true for the aging members of our society. And now, social distancing policies enacted around the globe during the COVID-19 pandemic have produced socially isolated circumstances for countless individuals. This isolation and confinement can also increase the risk of depression, self-harm, self-neglecting behavior, and decline in cognitive functioning.
Technological breakthroughs in the field of social isolation could allow researchers and implementors of these innovations to better understand, characterize and reduce the risks associated with social isolation, as well as leverage these insights to reduce the risk associated with social isolation on long-duration spaceflight and for other remote research locations.
Quarantine-related policies have led to many types of new social adaptations and activities as well. In some cases, social distancing may have had the opposite effect of bringing families, groups, and individuals closer together socially, whether because of stay-at-home policies or technological adaptations such as video conferencing and teleworking.
Your challenge is to develop innovative solutions to combat social isolation. What ideas and innovative technological approaches to reduce social isolation and increase the sense of social connection among members of our society can you design? How can you turn some of the realities of quarantine into a positive experience for yourself and others?
Considerations:
- Think as broadly as you like for this challenge. Your approach might include mental health solutions and/or practical solutions for practicing social distancing, but you are not limited to these themes.
- How might the strategies you identify benefit members of society in isolation, reducing the risks associated with social isolation, and also offer insights into countermeasure development for astronauts on long-duration spaceflight?
- Remember that to be eligible for global judging by our panel of Space Apps experts, your solution to the challenge must contain or reference NASA, ESA, JAXA, CSA, or CNES (or other space agency) data in some way.
- How do the insights of space agency professionals compare with your own observations? How have your observations informed your solution?