Isolation ends

ESA Space in Images - Title Isolation ends Released 06/11/2015 10:35 am Copyright ESA/IPEV/PNRA-B. Healey Description - The first supply aircraft in over six months landed at Europe's Concordia station on 6 November, bringing long-awaited equipment, food - including fresh fruit - and replacement personnel. The flight comes just seven weeks after daylight returned to the station on 17 September, following 105 days of continuous night. Pictured here is glaciologist and atmospheric physicist Giampietro Casasanta from the Italian National Research Council waiting outside in the snow for the aircraft. ESA-sponsored medical doctor Beth Healey, from the UK, is spending nine months at Concordia as part of the 2015 winter-over team. ESA sponsors a medical research doctor in Concordia every winter to study the long-term effects of isolation. Understanding how our bodies and minds adapt to extreme environments will help to overcome the challenges of long flights aboard the International Space Station and beyond.