On the Way to Jupiter: Psychological Dimensions of the Galileo Mission

Abstract

Emotions are a seldom-studied facet of the creative process in science and engineering. This paper describes a study of emotions in scientists and engineers on the Galileo mission to Jupiter, at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, from 1987-90. Although the spacecraft was finally launched in 1989, and is now en route to Jupiter, the Challenger Shuttle accident severely threatened the Project's survival in 1986, placing many people under serious stress, and triggering depression in some. The paper describes the nature of the depressions (an overwhelming sense of futility), how people coped with the associated problems and emotions (social support was a critical variable), and how the depressions resolved. The findings have implications for future interrupted missions: managers can ease, and possibly help end, such depressions by empathizing with the experience of futility, by helping people to make significant shifts in task or position within a project, and by recognizing interim achievement.