If you lose your marbles in zero gravity, your fellow astronauts are assigned to catch them. According to the LA Times, NASA has a detailed, if slightly barbaric plan for dealing with an astronaut’s psychotic or suicidal behavior while in space. To prevent a distraught astronaut from harming his colleagues, crewmates are instructed to physically restrain him with bungee cords and administer tranquilizers. Then what? The written plan does not elaborate, but a NASA spokesman quoted in the Times suggests that officials on the ship and on the ground would decide if the mission should be aborted. This report comes in the wake of astronaut Lisa Nowak’s arrest in Orlando for attempted kidnapping.

Although I have no issue with NASA’s concern for the safety of its astronauts in an understandably delicate situation, I am a little uncomfortable with the brutality of its plan. Yes, a suicidal or psychotic astronaut could endanger the lives of his crewmates, and the seriousness of the situation is unquestionable. However, I wonder about the criteria fellow astronauts would use to evaluate a troubled crewmate. Will astronauts be educated about signs of deteriorating mental health, or will they be trusted to ‘know it when they see it’?

Coincidentally, a bill before the US Senate will make it easier for Americans to seek treatment for mental health. The Mental Health Parity Act of 2007 would require health insurance companies to cover treatments for psychiatric and neurological disorders, including substance abuse, comparably to other health disorders.