Apollo 11 pilot story with addiction after landing on the moon
Buzz Aldrin, the Apollo and Astronaut mission astronaut with Neil Armstrong who landed on the moon, explained in his memoirs and interviews that the addiction of NASA astronauts is real, dangerous and dangerous.
According to the American website “Space”, Aldrin previously spoke of his “lost” contract as he described it in the 1970s, when he went through two marriages and worked at a car dealership in the years following his historic landing on the moon with the mission of Apollo 11.
Aldern said he was marginalized and ignored by NASA and the Air Force when he revealed his struggle with alcoholism and depression.
There was no actual movement from the US agency until 2007, when NASA reviewed claims of “heavy use of alcohol” by two astronauts within 12 hours of flying, only then did things start to change.
NASA spoke to respond to these allegations, as a survey of NASA astronauts and surgeons showed that there was no evidence that astronauts in the United States were drunk on the day of the launch.
The survey included all 31 NASA current surgeons and 87 of the 98 astronauts active between August and December last year.
NASA position with astronaut addiction
Despite the 1991 law that instructs NASA to develop a policy for testing alcohol and drugs for its employees, there was no such policy in effect in 2007, as NASA regulations prohibited the use of alcohol within 12 hours of launch time, but it was only formally approved for human spaceflight. at this time.
NASA now has a drug-free workplace instructions guide for the employee and supervisor of the program, and the guide contains sections that include testing, privacy, employee rights, mental health services, and more.
Jim Pridenstein, director of NASA, recently ordered the workplace safety review of two contracting companies, SpaceX and Boeing, as the two companies contracted to launch NASA astronauts to the International Space Station, and this came after Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, smoked marijuana. Whiskey was drunk publicly on the “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast during September 2018.
And if NASA wants to be more active in the safety of the workplace, the agency must also think about how astronauts deal with depression both in space and on the ground, and not just how its workforce can be used without drug or alcohol on the ground .
The International Space Station astronauts are vulnerable to depression and addiction to analgesics
Also, in a live broadcast from the International Space Station on February 7, 2019, the Canadian Space Agency astronaut David Saint-Jacques said: “The problem that develops here is that everything is a little the same every day, sometimes depression can creep if you are not careful” .
What increases the risk of substance use disorders among astronauts during their space trips, medical treatment also in the case of injuries sustained during space missions, for example, back pain is common among astronauts, which doctors write in return for an opioid prescription.
NASA needs to focus more on astronauts’ s ability to become infected and their dependence on opioid consumption, which could lead to a narcotic substance use disorder, as the physical requirements for training or doing a task may cause or increase back pain.
Also, between recognizing and treating a problem, detecting alcohol and drug addiction, and developing a plan to help people recovering from addiction, NASA has a lot to do. Instead of firing workers with a chemical background, we can make a huge leap to improving humankind.