The Claustrophobia of the Void

[unspeakablehorror]

I wonder what it does to a person psychologically to be on a small cramped ship for not just days but months at a time and know you are months away from civilization, from a planet, even, barrelling through the cold and empty expanse of space. Because they've done psychological tests where they locked a few people in a small building in the arctic, they've studied the psychological effects of being on a space station or on the moon, but none of that is really the same as every planet being a distant speck, as Earth being nothing more than a pale blue dot and Mars a pale red one. And even if you choose not to look, you still know. Know you are surrounded by void with only the abstract hope (for such a venture could never be certain to be safe) that you will encounter anything beyond your cramped vessel or the impossibly distant motes of light of the void ever again.

I don't know, I just think there's a level of claustrophobia to that experience that we'll never be able to fully simulate.