QUESTION:
Could you use virtual reality and/or simulators to minimize the feelings
of loneliness of the astronauts that go on long missions by providing a
virtual home on earth?

ANSWER from Rich Hogen on March 14, 2000:
There are specialists at NASA centers and elsewhere investigating questions
like this, because long-duration distant spaceflight is on the minds of many
people these days.  To my knowledge we don't know the answer yet.

Can virtual reality replace real human interactions?  If not, what if
virtual reality driver programs become so advanced that they create the
sensations of real human interactions?  Are there physical aspects of
interactions which are required elements in fighting off loneliness?  Can
virtual reality simulate them?  Which psychological profiles are more or
less susceptible to loneliness?  Which are more or less susceptible to being
tricked by virtual reality of one kind or another?

There are Earthly precedents for long-duration isolation:  people who work
at Arctic and Antarctic bases for the long polar winters, or people who work
in secretive military submarines, or scientific experiments designed to
examine these conditions and how people react to them, for example.

These studies are called "Human Factors" studies, and there is literature to
be found.