Five Years Of Space Rocks: Uplink

Incredibly, this week is the five year anniversary of when we started Space Rocks: Uplink as a result of the pandemic lockdowns. Designed to explore and ask big questions about space and also how they affected life on Earth, our very first guest was Beth Healey who is a medical doctor and an expert in extreme conditions. Beth spent a year working for ESA in Antarctica  – aka the ‘White Mars’ – at the research base Concordia Station, to study the effects of physical and psychological isolation. As recent news has shown, the psychological effect of living in highly remote and accessible areas – especially is close proximity to the same colleagues – can have a deleterious effect on the mind.

The aim of Beth’s work was to ascertain the medical advances which can be done while working under extreme conditions. In the future these could include lengthy stays on the International Space Station and long space flights. Astronauts might potentially need to withstand long periods in isolation on the moon or on Mars. In short, Beth was the ideal candidate for advising us how to cope in lockdown!

We’ll be bringing you more episodes of Uplink and other Space Rocks podcasts in the near future, but in the meantime you can watch all 64 podcasts – including episode 1 with Beth – on our YouTube channel.