We Have a Problem, Houston, But Also an Onboard Therapist

To astronauts, it will sound uncannily like Hal, the soft-voiced computer that turns nasty in Stanley Kubrick's film, 2001: A Space Odyssey. But to Nasa, it could make the difference between a successful mission and failure.

Known as the Virtual Space Station, a new project aims to give astronauts an on board therapist for long-duration missions, either in Earth orbit or on longer journeys to the moon and Mars.

Astronauts suffering from depression, arguing with colleagues, or wrestling with their workload, will be able to receive video counseling from recordings by Mark Hegel, a psychologist at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.

"Astronauts are in an unusual situation, having to live in space for months at a time. If they run into psycho-social problems, it's not as though they can go for a walk, meet new people or quit," said James Cartreine at Harvard Medical School.

The $1.74m project (£1m), funded by the National Space Biomedical Research Institute, will start trials next month to see if volunteers with mild depression improve after advice from the virtual therapist.

Depression and personal conflicts do not affect most space missions, and rarely become public. But some psychological problems are inevitable, particularly on longer assignments. In 1985, a mission on Russia's Salyut 7 space station was scrapped because the commander was spending hours looking out of portholes.

Jay Buckey, a former astronaut on the Space Shuttle Columbia, said: "You're depending on each other for survival. So you want to make sure you're working together well and trust each other."