On: Herpes Virus Reactivation in Astronauts During Spa...

[nabla9]

I would humbly suggest submarine crews as control group.

Canned air, tight space, weird sleep cycles, noise and artificial light. Submarine crews are even more isolated because they can't contact families while underway.

[w-ll → nabla9]

Or even saturation divers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturation_diving

[freeflight → nabla9]

I'd imagine this whole "being strapped to a ton of explosives and using them to fly" moment is a tad bit more extreme and stressful than a submarine dive.

After that, they both have similar constant stress factors, but imho the launch alone is probably way more than what anybody on a submarine would go through.

[bojo → freeflight]

The crew quarters are literally between the missile launch tubes, which sure they aren’t exploding under you, but still.

[zeckalpha → freeflight]

Nuclear submarines?

[craftyguy → zeckalpha]

I suspect that far more rockets have undergone rapid, unplanned disassembly than nuclear submarines. And when they do, the death rate is very high.

[taneq → nabla9]

Also airline crews? They get to do their high-pressure job in lower-than-normal air pressure, they get shaken around in a tin can and their sleep schedules are shot to hell.

[steve1977 → taneq]

But they can at least leave their cabins every couple of hours for a a couple of hours or days.