Relationships between male and female astronauts cannot be governed by a code of conduct, Canadian astronaut Julie Payette says.
In the aftermath of a sexual-harassment scandal at a Moscow space research institute, the partners in the 16-nation International Space Station have begun drafting a code of conduct for its crews.
"Where would you start?" Ms. Payette asked in an interview. "This is not something you put specifically in a code of conduct. Human interaction is not a simple thing."
The sexual-harassment controversy erupted last month when a Canadian nurse, Judith Lapierre, complained that she was forcibly kissed by a male commander during a 110-day isolation experiment in a replica of a spaceship. Russian scientists denied that it was sexual harassment, calling it a cultural difference.
Ms. Payette, only the second female astronaut in the history of Canada's space program, spent 11 days in a mission to the international station last year.
She believes the isolation experiment showed the need for careful selection of crews, detailed preparations and plenty of strong support from ground crews.
"You minimize the risk. You learn to appreciate people's differences. If a line is crossed, then things are talked out. . . . If you're in space on the way to Mars, and a conflict develops . . . you can't turn around and go back, because Earth is already gone on its orbit."
Equally important, she said, is a common language among the astronauts and the ground crew, something that was absent in Ms. Lapierre's experiment, where some scientists were not fluent in Russian and others spoke nothing else.
"When something happens, it's much harder to resolve it if you have to push through the hurdle of trying to understand one another, trying to explain and discuss things. You can't rely on an interpreter."