Psychologist Raphael Rose, associate director of UCLA’s Anxiety and Depression Research Center and an associate clinical professor in the department of psychology and the department of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences, has been awarded a grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for research to support the health of astronauts on deep space missions.
Rose’s research is one of 24 projects selected from 178 proposals nationwide to receive a total of about $12.9 million during a one- to three-year period from NASA's Human Research Program and the National Space Biomedical Research Institute. All of the projects will contribute to knowledge needed for NASA’s journey to Mars by investigating the impact of the space environment on various aspects of astronaut health, from visual impairment to sensormotor adaptation.
Rose’s study, “Asynchronous Behavioral Health Treatment Techniques,” will explore methods of delivering evidence-based behavioral health care that could be used on a long-duration space mission such as one to Mars, where there will be 20-minute communication delays— asynchronous communication — between Earth and the crew. The study will take place at UCLA and will involve a randomized, controlled trial comparing in-person-delivered behavioral health care to a self-guided approach such as a computer-based software program for an area of relevance, such as anxiety, to long-duration space travel.
Rose has been conducting research with NASA for the past seven years on stress management and resilience training. He is currently principal investigator on a project that is evaluating a self-guided multimedia stress management and resilience-training program that he developed with flight controllers at NASA-Johnson Space Center.
See NASA’s announcement of the research grants here.
