Little information has been released about the psychological effects of space travel, both on the astronauts and the public at large. Over the years NASA spokesmen have even denied that the astronauts dream at all during their space flights. What did they dream about, how were their imaginations affected, their emotions and need for privacy, their perception of time and death?
The Space Age lasted barely 15 years, from GagarinŐs first flight in 1961 to the first Apollo splashdown not shown live on TV in 1975, a consequence of the publicŐs loss of interest. Perhaps space travel is forever doomed because it inevitably recapitulates primitive stages in the growth of our nervous systems, before the development of our sense of balance and upright posture- a forced return to infantile dependency. Only intelligent machines may one day grasp the joys of space travel, seeing the motion sculpture of the space flights as immense geometric symphonies.
J.G.Ballard: from the annotated edition of "the atrocity exhibition."