History Main / SpaceMadness

* In ''Fanfic/RocketshipVoyager'', space madness is just a catchall phrase for any number of psychological conditions. In Captain Janeway's {{Backstory}}, she and several other female crewmembers mutinied against their officers who wanted to use them as a BabyFactory. To avoid an embarrassing court-martial, the women were described as having merely 'detained' their officers for their own safety after they went space-mad (it didn't hurt that the captain had GoneMadFromTheIsolation after being sealed up in an airlock by the mutineers). Exposure to the infinity of space can also lead to insanity: {{fishbowl helmet}}s have focal points painted on them to prevent this, and Captain Janeway has a brief panic attack when she's [[StrappedToARocket sealed up in a cargo rocket]] and shot out of a torpedo tube.

* In the film ''Film/{{Armageddon}}'', this is the justification for the loopy Russian space station attendant. He'd been alone up there for quite a while. Rock Hound, on the other hand, suddenly comes down with "Space Dementia" and starts shooting everything with the remote-controlled Gatling gun they brought along for some reason. Mind you, these guys weren't all that sane to start with.

* ''Literature/TheSpaceOdysseySeries'': Unlike in [[Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey the movie]], ''2001: A Space Oddesy'' goes into great detail Dave Bowman's life aboard ''Discovery'' after the deaths of his partners and disconnecting the HAL 9000 computer, making his only contact with Earth through pre-recorded messages. Given his circumstances, he has quite a bit of difficulty remaining sane.

* Captain Vladamir from ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes2DesperateStruggle''. Possibly as a ShoutOut to [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater the Fury]], he was a cosmonaut who went insane from isolation and didn't realize he was back on earth until he dies at the end of the fight when his helmet is shattered. FridgeLogic abounds about why he was an assassin when he didn't even know where he was.

* This is stated as the cause of the Demon Pirates' bizarre, disjointed speech patterns and homicidal aggressiveness in ''VideoGame/TachyonTheFringe''. An unspecified 'something' in the pirates' nebula seriously scrambles their neural pathways over an extended period of exposure, and not even the hermetic sealing of a spaceship is proof against it. There are cases where individuals removed from the nebula slowly recover some shaky semblance of sanity, indicating that it might well be the nebula itself that is responsible for the degeneration.
** It's also implied that the Fog was created, or at least modified, by [[MadScientist Dr. Randall Cassitor]]. Luckily, one of the missions involves you getting a group of the Demon Pirates to attack Cassitor's base.

* ''Film/LucyInTheSky'' implies that it's not outer space, but the return to the mundanity of life on Earth that drives people over the edge. The premise was criticised by real-life astronaut Marsha Ivins.

*** The poster child for this in the game is [[spoiler:BigBad Saren himself. While his [[FantasticRacism hate-on for the human race]] stems back to personal loss from the First Contact War, his villainous crusade turns out to be nothing more than Sovereign's influence on his mind convincing him of the absurd notion that the Reapers would ever be interested in [[YouWillBeSpared sparing any species that could prove to be valuable servants]]. The Reapers aren't even interested in conquest as a normal society understands the concept, and their idea of "enslaving a useful species" is to use genetic engineering and cybernetics to turn them into unrecognizable, unthinking, disposable troops. The extent of Saren's madness is such that, should Shepard prove capable of convincing him to see it, he will blow his own brains out]].

* In the Creator/JohnRingo short story "A Ship Named Francis", between the decidedly substandard crew and the highly disturbing sermons of the ship's chaplain (in which he implores God to not let any of the various things that can destroy a ship happen in excruciating detail for fifteen minutes over the public address system every morning), the ''Francis S. Mueller'' has to trank at least one person every week.

[[caption-width-right:349:[[VoiceOfTheLegion ''SPACE MADNESS''.]]]]

* An early ''Comicbook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' story had Sun Boy snapping from too many consecutive deep space missions, after which the Legion Constitution was amended to require mandatory downtime every so often.
* The ''[[ComicBook/TwoThousandAD 2000AD]]'' series ''Ace Trucking Co.'' featured a condition called "Isolation Syndrome" or "Abbo Dabbo" as a recurring trope.
* In ''ComicBook/FiftyTwo'', Comicbook/AnimalMan is told not to look out the spaceship's windows for too long because it tends to cause existential crises.
** For extra humor, the man who gives him this advice is ''blind.''
* ComicBook/{{Storm}} of the ComicBook/XMen, suffered a more mild version of this due to the fact that she was away from the Earth and felt a disconnect returning. She was angry and, after having spent some time on the streets of Tokyo with ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}'s friend Yukio (who considers herself a bit mad), decided to get a new look involving leather and a Mohawk. She eventually got better.
* A ''[[ComicBook/TwoThousandAD 2000AD]]'' ''Future Shock'' short story called 'Solo Flip' concerned an astronaut, alone on a long-duration interstellar flight, who eventually goes mad, throws himself out of an airlock...and lands on a pile of mattresses. It turns out that it is just a simulation designed to weed out the psychologically unstable.
* "Marbles", a story in ''[[Creator/ECComics Incredible Science Fiction #30]]'', involves the first crewed mission into space on board the X-17, a spaceship designed with every comfort and precaution in mind. After three weeks everyone on board's claiming that the universe is actually incredibly tiny and that they're playing with the planets like rubber balls, ring-tossing with Saturn, etc. As the ship plummets to Earth, the mission commander notes solemnly that the sheer vastness of space has driven them completely monkeydoodles.

* Discussed but downplayed in ''Fanfic/TheNextFrontier''. As noted in the RealLife section, manned (or rather [[VideoGame/KerbalSpaceProgram kerballed]]) spaceflight is not very exciting or hands-on and there isn't a whole lot for the crew to ''do'' most of the time.
* In ''Fanfic/RocketshipVoyager'', space madness is just a catchall phrase for any number of psychological conditions. In Captain Janeway's BackStory, she and several other female crewmembers mutinied against their officers who wanted to use them as a BabyFactory. To avoid an embarrassing court-martial, the women were described as having merely 'detained' their officers for their own safety after they went space-mad (it didn't hurt that the captain had GoneMadFromTheIsolation after being sealed up in an airlock by the mutineers). Exposure to the infinity of space can also lead to insanity: {{fishbowl helmet}}s have focal points painted on them to prevent this, and Captain Janeway has a brief panic attack when she's [[StrappedToARocket sealed up in a cargo rocket]] and shot out of a torpedo tube.

* In the film ''Film/{{Armageddon}}'', this is the justification for the loopy [[strike:Mir]] "Russian space station" attendant. He'd been alone up there for quite a while. Rock Hound, on the other hand, suddenly comes down with "Space Dementia" and starts shooting everything with the remote-controlled Gatling gun they brought along for some reason. Mind you, those guys weren't all that sane to start with.
* Dr. Reinhardt from ''Film/TheBlackHole'' commanded a massive starship of his own design. He became increasingly unstable and refused to return to Earth. He became obsessed with a black hole he and his ship discovered, and being a genius, he designed an anti-gravity system to prevent the ship from being pulled in. When his crew rebelled, he used the ship's robotic sentries against his crew and turned them into cybernetic slaves. By the the time another Earth ship finds him, he is thoroughly insane and planning to journey ''inside'' the black hole.
* ''Film/{{Sunshine}}'' (2007) features several cases of space madness of varying severity, from the mild (becoming addicted to close-range suntanning) to the severe: [[spoiler:"Mankind was not meant to tamper in the domain of God! Die!"]]
* Averted in ''Film/{{Outland}}''. Federal Marshal [[Creator/SeanConnery O'Niel]] is trying to find out why miners on Io are going insane and killing themselves. At first it seems like they're cracking up under the pressure of living in grimy, crowded, dangerous conditions far from Earth. 28 have died in the last six months, with 24 in the six months prior. But when O'Niel is told only ''two'' died in the six months before ''that'', he realises something's fishy.
* Played completely for laughs in ''Film/DarkStar'', where the entire crew has gone visibly unhinged from five years stuck inside cramped space, performing a thankless job that nobody wants and having nothing to do.
* Figures largely into the film ''Film/{{Pandorum}}''. "Pandorum" is actually their term for space madness; it's described as resulting from a combination of paranoia, emotional stress, and the physiological stresses of deep-space travel. Although the HumanPopsicle process might also have some influence on it.
* ''Film/ConquestOfSpace'' (George Pal's 1955 sci-fi flop after his previous blockbusters ''Film/DestinationMoon'' and ''Film/WhenWorldsCollide''). The doctor on [[SpaceStation The Wheel]] diagnoses one man who cracks up as having "somatic dysphasia", described in LaymansTerms as "space fatigue". Apparently everyone working in outer space suffers from it but the symptoms are usually minor, and easily cured by returning the patient to Earth. For those selected for the first Mars expedition, already under stress through the competitive selection process, the issue is more serious. The general in charge of the mission begins to crack, and in a religious fervor tries to sabotage the spacecraft [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow in the belief that Man is not meant to leave planet Earth]].
* Arguably the whole driving force behind ''Film/SilentRunning''. Freeman Lowell is clearly somewhat on-edge from the start, though in this case it has more to do with his sense of responsibility in protecting what remains of Earth's forests. By the time he receives orders to destroy them, he's willing to murder his crewmates (even letting one of the forest-protecting domes be destroyed in the process). Then he slowly starts to lose it through a mix of [[GoMadFromTheIsolation being alone with only two robots and the occasional voice on the radio for company]], guilt over the deaths of his partners and [[spoiler: accidentally running over one of the two robots)]], and eventually [[spoiler: grief upon realizing that the forest is dying, to the point where he can't quite think straight enough to figure out why despite being a botanist]]. By the time it's all over [[spoiler: he is willing to detonate a nuclear explosive on board the ship while he's still on it]].
* ''Film/MutinyInOuterSpace'' (1965). The commander of the SpaceStation is suffering from 'space raptures', which cause hallucinations and affect judgment. This is bad news when the station has become contaminated by an alien fungus, thus leading to the eponymous 'mutiny' as the crew attempt to remove him from command.
* ''Film/AdAstra'' (2019). Astronaut Roy [=McBride=] believes his astronaut father (who has been sent on a deep space mission) suffers from space madness, and goes out to save/stop him, while fearing that he may succumb to space madness himself.
* Downplayed in the 1960 Italian sci-fi movie ''Space-Men'' (a.k.a. ''Assignment: Outer Space''). When the TagalongReporter is placed into a spacesuit and ThrownOutTheAirlock so he can cross to the SpaceStation, he starts to FreakOut over the endless void, but pulls himself together just before reaching the other airlock. No-one bothers easing him through it, and his reaction is regarded as entirely normal, the equivalent of getting your space legs.

* Creator/AlfredBester's classic novel ''Literature/TheStarsMyDestination'' features the character of Gully Foyle, who becomes stranded in space after his ship is attacked, and starts to go mad slowly. It doesn't really kick in, however, until a ship capable of rescuing him casually flies past, which leaves Foyle with a hateful vengeance that drives him for the rest of the novel.
--> '''Gully Foyle:''' I kill you, Vorga. ''I kill you filthy!''
* Grant Callin's ''A Lion on Tharthee'' goes into detail about the issue. Becomes a plot point.
* The Creator/RobertAHeinlein novel ''Literature/StrangerInAStrangeLand''. Secretary General Douglas asks if Dr. Mahmoud is "space happy" from his trip back from Mars.
** The main character of the Heinlein story ''Literature/OrdealInSpace'' develops severe acrophobia after an EVA accident sends him [[DramaticSpaceDrifting adrift in space]] until rescue arrives, forcing him to give up space flight. [[spoiler:He snaps out of it when he nerves himself up to rescue a kitten stuck on a ledge]].
* Creator/LarryNiven's ''Literature/KnownSpace'':
** In one short story, Belters (asteroid miners) are said to temporarily lose their minds while staring at space, similar to "highway hypnosis". They continue to function somewhat, much like sleepwalkers.

* The Total Perspective Vortex from ''Literature/TheRestaurantAtTheEndOfTheUniverse'' works by showing the victim, just for one brief instant, the ''entire universe'', and their place in it. It's described as the worst fate a sentient being can endure, as the realisation of just how insignificant he is completely destroys his soul.
** Zaphod Beeblebrox proved to be completely immune to it. It was at first thought that he's [[ItsAllAboutMe so egocentric]] that seeing an arrow showing his location meant to him that he was important enough to be pointed out in the vastness of space. [[spoiler:The real reason was that he was exposed to it while in a pocket universe specifically designed for him... therefore he actually ''was'' the most important thing in that universe, meaning the Vortex didn't have its intended effect.]]
* In the classic short story "Literature/ScannersLiveInVain" by Creator/CordwainerSmith, humans are unable to cope with the "Great Pain of Space" (whose exact cause is unknown but related to the FTL technology) and rely on [[HumanPopsicle cold sleep]] ships crewed by ''habermans'' whose brain has been severed from all sensory input except the eyes, and whose body therefore has to be [[HollywoodCyborg regulated by implanted instruments]].
** The Pain of Space wasn't space ''madness'', it was actual physical pain. At the time Cordwainer Smith wrote the story, little was known about the environment of outer space, or what the strange and little-understood radiations there would do to a human body. Smith used this as an excuse to write an allegorical tale about the tragic dangers of separating the head from the heart (and not the way they mean in ''Franchise/{{Highlander}}'', either).
* In Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''The Martian Way'', it is a widely known "fact" that nobody can remain in space for more than six months without going crazy, and it is hard to even remain that long, which is why ships are built as big as possible and are filled with libraries and movie theaters to keep their passengers occupied. However, the hero points out that many humans who have colonized Mars have stayed out in space for longer, and on much more cramped an un-amusing ships, too, as they have adapted to the experience. They also think that floating in the void in a spacesuit is great fun, and spend much of their off-duty hours while travelling between planets doing so.
** Asimov has also written a story called "I am in Marsport without Hilda" which is based around the fact that most people cannot travel in space without a dose of special medication... and it is very difficult to conceal the fact said medication can be cooked into a super drug in anyone's kitchen.

* ''The Shores Of Death'' by Creator/MichaelMoorcock: no-one can leave the Earth for as much as a month without their spirit driving them mad with the pain of separation from mother Gaia. One man manages to spend years away by reforming himself into a mutant monstrosity, but his acolytes die horribly. Then again, Orlando Sharvis may in fact be another incarnation of Arioch, or perhaps Satan.
* Creator/MichaelMoorcock develops this theme in ''The Black Corridor'', a novel where a handful of people leave a doomed insane Earth in a colony ship. The central character is on his lonely vigil tending the life-support systems keeping the rest in suspended animation. but deep Space threatens to overwhelm him... [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jzk_sQetI8 set to music]] by space-rockers Music/{{Hawkwind}}.
* In the short story "Competition" by James Causey, just looking into a viewport is enough to send a female biochemist into temporary insanity -- it's mentioned that only experienced space travellers can do so.

* "Literature/TheNothingEquation", a short story by Tom Goodwin (of "Literature/TheColdEquations" fame). An astronaut is assigned to a one-man astronomy station at the edge of the galaxy. He knows that his predecessor went insane, and the one before killed himself, but is confident ''he'' won't crack up. Slowly, though, he becomes obsessed with the idea of just how vulnerable he is out here, with a hull one sixteenth of an inch thick holding 2 million pounds of pressure. He starts charting every possible vulnerable point and ends up, months later, cowering under a makeshift tent, convinced the "nothingness" outside is just waiting for a chance to come rushing in. [[HereWeGoAgain The story ends with a fourth astronaut taking over the post also confident that he won't crack up; after all there's 'nothing' out there to be afraid of...]]

* Creator/MackReynolds wrote a ''[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Star Trek]]'' book, ''Literature/MissionToHoratius'', in which the possibility of "space cafard" became a concern. Spock described it as:
-->"Compounded of claustrophobia, ennui--boredom, if you will--and the instinctive dread of a species, born on a planet surface, of living outside its native environment.... A mania that evidently is highly contagious. It is said that in the early days of space travel, cafard could sweep through a ship in a matter of hours, until all on board were raging maniacs, and--"
* ''Tomorrow War'' by Alexander Zorich all ships has at least some bays equipped with real windows (not videoscreens). If this feature is omitted, the crew will grow less stable until someone starts to drool or breaks the screen and then walks out of an airlock. One of the reasons may be [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace sensory deprivation during jumps]] -- crews obviously are used to {{FTL}} travel and aren't jarred too much, but it seems to make the long-term problem worse.
* This is why patrol ships have a mirror installed in them in Creator/StanislawLem's ''Literature/TalesOfPirxThePilot''. Pirx ends up kicking himself in the face repeatedly before returning to his senses. In fact, one of the tests one must endure during the piloting academy is sensory deprivation by the means of a special salt-water pool.
* In Creator/StanislawLem's first collection of Ijon Tichy stories, ''Literature/TheStarDiaries'', one of the short stories calls into question whether Tichy's far-fetched adventures really happened (or are [[TheMunchausen tall tales and exaggerations]] related by an UnreliableNarrator), or are actually delusions resulting from isolation-induced Space Madness.
* Creator/AndreyLivadny's novel ''Ganymede Rising'' has the crew of the USS ''Harry S. Truman'', an American space cruiser, who are sent on a top-secret mission to the titular moon of Jupiter to retrieve a recently-discovered alien artifact. When someone brings up the fact that the ''Truman'' is not designed for interplanetary travel (it lacks [[HumanPopsicle cryogenic pods]], for one), and there's a strong risk of this trope. The others wave the concern off, claiming that the crewmembers are [[EagleLand American soldiers]] and their resolve and faith in their nation will sustain them. They're wrong, of course. After long months of travel, the crew of the ''Truman'' does indeed start losing their minds. So when strange creatures start coming out of the artifact, TheCaptain orders an attack on it and also sends troops to the Ganymede colony (which is not under American jurisdiction). When the attack fails ([[spoiler:the insane soldiers end up accidentally shooting one another, as the aliens are holograms]]), he gets ready to push the button and NukeEm all.
* Unlike the movie, Creator/ArthurCClarke's rendition of ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'' went into great detail Dave Bowman's life aboard ''Discovery'' after the deaths of his partners and disconnecting the HAL 9000 computer, making his only contact with Earth through pre-recorded messages. Given his circumstances he had quite a bit of difficulty remaining sane.
* In the ''Literature/HonorHarrington'' universe, it's mentioned that the realization of just how dangerous being in space is can cause people to crack every now and then, requiring the person in question to be sedated and transferred to a groundside post for therapy. A normal naval vessel has something like this happen once or twice a T-year (Terran year). Between the decidedly substandard crew and the highly disturbing sermons of the ship's chaplain (in which he implores God to not let any of the various things that can destroy a ship happen in excruciating detail for fifteen minutes over the public address system every morning), the ''Francis S. Mueller'' from the Creator/JohnRingo short story "A Ship Named Francis" has to trank at least one person every week.
* The short story ''[[http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/steele_12_14_reprint/ The Emperor of Mars]]'' covers going nuts in space in some detail, although usually the causes are being cooped up in a confined space for too long, lack of sunlight, poor diet, stress and getting bad news from home that you can't do anything about rather than space itself.
* Weaponized in "The Illusionists", one of Creator/JamesHSchmitz's ''Literature/AgentOfVega'' stories. A planetary tyrant who suffers from extreme space-fear is tricked into fleeing his planet with the help of antipsychotic drugs that keep the fear under control...until the dosage expires.
* Hugo Gernsback had one of the earliest examples in the classic sci-fi ''Ralph 124C 41+''. Without gravity pulling downwards on the brain, it instead expands outwards slightly in all directions, to ill effect.
-->The effect on the brain results in [[SpaceX space-sickness]], the first symptoms being violent melancholy and depression followed by a terrible and heart-rending longing for Earth. During this stage, at which the patient undergoes great mental suffering, the optical nerves usually become affected and everything appears upside down, as if the sufferer were looking through a lens. It becomes necessary to take large doses of ''Siltagol'', otherwise brain fever may develop.

** ''Star Trek The Original Series'' episode "The Naked Time". When discussing what happened to a scientific expedition who killed themselves and each other in bizarre ways, Spock raised the possibility of space madness but pointed out that [[DownplayedTrope it would still have to be caused by something specific]].
** ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "The Lights of Zetar". Scotty says that going on your first deep space trip can affect a person's mind.
** ''Star Trek The Original Series'' episode "The Tholian Web". Being in a particular area of space causes violent insanity by distorting the molecular structure of brain tissues and the central nervous system.
** ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "Dramatis Personae", later reveiled to be caused by the crew members become possessed by the minds of a dead alien culture who had turned on themselves before their extinction and were causing the crew to reenact their power struggle.
** ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' has The Void. (confusingly, it's in the episode titled "Night", not the episode titled "The Void") It's lightyear upon lightyear of nothing. You can't even see the stars; it's so big that hardly any ships cross it, thus nobody from either side knows much about the other. It's so big that the ship has to be on minimum power, and a broom leaning against the Conn panel could fly the ship. Nothing to do, nothing to see, everybody goes stircrazy or suicidally depressed.
*** Or composes a hauntingly beautiful clarinet piece (Of course, Perpetual Ensign Harry Kim always was one of the most stable of the bunch).
** ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "Night Terrors" has the crew become irritable and paranoid after coming across a Federation ship where the crew went insane and killed each other. Though in that case, it was because an alien vessel's attempts at communication disrupted the crew's REM sleep patterns rather than [[NegativeSpaceWedgie the usual space anomaly]].
* Parodied on an episode of satirical British series ''Series/BrassEye'', in which a segment documents the way in which NASA were forced to place a mentally retarded man on the Apollo 11 flights as an outlet for the crew's massively heightened sexual impulses caused by space travel. Women were deemed "too silly" for space.

* ''Series/ICarly'': Carly manages to suffer from this after a few hours in "iSpaceOut" even though she, Sam and Freddie never go to outer space and are just in a simulation room. Later episodes show that Carly is actually claustrophobic, though it’s possible that the simulation room caused it.
* This is a theorized origin of the Reavers in ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' - that they went to the edge of known space and something they saw, whether it was the vast emptiness or something else, drove them insane. Not everyone believes this - as Jayne points out in TheMovie: "I went to the edge of space once. Know what I saw? More space." [[spoiler:The truth is simultaneously [[{{Aesoptinum}} much simpler]] and [[GoneHorriblyWrong infinitely worse]].]]
* In the ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' episode "Coup By Clam", "transmissible celestial dementia" is a greatly feared infectious disease. [[spoiler: Though it's really caused by a bacteria in a species of mollusk that is used for assassination or extortion.]]
** Also, in the episode "Crackers Don't Matter", where the light from a pulsar makes everyone lose their marbles for a time. Subverted in that it turns out the guy who told them it would do that was lying to cover up his own psychic attack.
** Referenced in "Beware of Dog" when Aeryn wonders if Crichton's deteriorating mental state is the result of this. In this specific incident it was actually Crichton's NotSoImaginaryFriend that was causing him to act erratically but Aeryn doesn't know about that yet.
--->'''Aeryn:''' Crichton, you've told me yourself that your species isn't accustomed to being in space for long periods of time. Now I have seen cases of transit madness before, and if you're cracking up-\\
'''John:''' Aeryn-\\

'''John:''' [[BlatantLies I'm fine.]] I don't want to talk about it.
* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': In the first episode, "Where Is Everybody?", a man finds himself in an empty town. He's revealed to have hallucinated the whole thing during an exercise designed to replicate the feeling of isolation in outer space.
* On ''Series/JohnDoe'', a metal dome in the forest turns out to be a simulated space vessel, in which astronauts have been confined for months to test the mechanisms and psychological hazards of a manned trip to Mars. Initial investigation suggests the crew have killed each other due to Space Madness from prolonged isolation [[spoiler:but it turns out their air-circulation system was sabotaged, causing a gas imbalance that impaired their reason]].
* On ''Series/{{Community}}'' Pierce succumbs to this after a few minutes of being locked inside a space simulator.
* In ''Series/KamenRiderFourze'', several of the cast is participating in astronaut trials, including being locked in a small room. When the examiners throw in some alarm klaxons and gouts of smoke to mess with the students, [[TheStoic Ryusei]] of all people has a FreakOut and swats at the smoke while making FunnyBruceLeeNoises. The others are convinced he failed the test on purpose so at least one Rider would be available to fight the MonsterOfTheWeek; Ryusei responds SureLetsGoWithThat, not wanting to admit he was legitimately flipping out.
* In one episode of ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' during the arc where Howard was aboard the International Space Station he started breaking down, getting paranoid about the thin walls between him and vacuum and missing gravity to the point where he asked Bernadette to drop something so he could watch it fall in one of their video chats. Eventually the other astronauts strapped him down and pumped him full of tranquilizers.

* In the adaption of ''Series/TheExpanse'', the unnamed XO of the ''Canturbury'' is suffering from a bad case, shuffling around his dirt-covered cabin and waving a revolver, hence why [[TheProtagonist Holden]] has to assume many of his duties.
-->''You know what I just can't figure out? We made it all this way, so far out into the darkness...'' (deranged chuckle) ''Why couldn't we have brought more light?''

* Music/{{Muse}}'s song ''Space Dementia''.
* This is quite possibly what happens in [[Music/DavidBowie David Bowie's]] song ''Space Oddity.'' In the song, an astronaut named Major Tom makes a trip into outer space, and when ground control detects a problem, he makes a last transmission of ''"Tell my wife I love her very much"'' before contact is lost. The last verse of the song implies that the isolation will drive him mad.
** A later Bowie song, ''Ashes to Ashes'' states that ''"Major Tom's a junkie"'' - although whether the drugs are the cause or the result of his space madness remains unspecified.
* The Music/VanDerGraafGenerator song ''Pioneers Over C'' is about an astronaut who, very similarly to Major Tom from ''Space Oddity'', loses contact with ground control. The song goes on as an InnerMonologue of his insanity.

--> Space is dark, and it's so endless;
--> When you are lost, it's so relentless;
--> space is so big, and we're so small,
--> Why does man have to act so tall?
--> Is this the reason, deep in our minds?

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' the Warp, the equivalent of hyperspace, is [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace literally hell]], filled with all kinds of {{Eldritch Abomination}}s. If anything goes wrong, madness will be the least of your worries.

* In ''VisualNovel/{{Policenauts}}'', this leads to a higher rate of drug abuse amongst astronauts, who developed the designer drug Narc as a way to relieve the pressure of living in space. Narc is a psychedelic hallucinogen that also gives the same narcotic effect as heroin, so users are incredibly resistant to pain. It's also outrageously addictive.
* Captain Vladamir from ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes2DesperateStruggle''. Possibly as a shout out to the fury above, was a cosmonaut who went insane from isolation and didn't realize he was back on earth until he dies at the end of the fight when his helmet is shattered. FridgeLogic abound about why he was an assassin when he didn't even know where he was.

* Stated as the cause of the Demon Pirates' bizarre, disjointed speech patterns and homicidal aggressiveness in ''VideoGame/TachyonTheFringe''. An unspecified 'something' in the pirates' nebula seriously scrambles their neural pathways over an extended period of exposure, and not even the hermetic sealing of a spaceship is proof against it. There are cases where individuals removed from the nebula slowly recover some shaky semblance of sanity, indicating that it might well be the nebula itself that is responsible for the degeneration.

* In ''VideoGame/DiscoElysium'' this is mentioned in setting details. [[spoiler:Travelling through The Pale, the mass of non-matter between inhabited isolas, is strictly regulated for mental health reasons. Most people are only allowed six days worth of exposure per year, while specialists with proper training can do twenty. There are also pockets of artificial matter made in the pale to house relay stations. Anyone staffed at those stations rarely come back intact]].
* In ''Franchise/MassEffect,'' this turns out to be a little more prominent than one may expect once the extent of [[spoiler: Reaper Indoctrination]] is shown, to the point where it became entirely plausible that [[spoiler: the PlayerCharacter]] may suffer from it. Hearing voices is a common early symptom. Many victims can still function at this stage because they realize this isn't normal and can thus ignore the obvious attempts at brainwashing; true madness begins setting in when they start thinking of the voices as a positive thing, and it's downhill from there.
** ''VideoGame/MassEffect1:''
*** The poster child for this in the game is [[spoiler: BigBad Saren himself. While his hate-on for the human race stems back to personal loss from the First Contact War, his villainous crusade turns out to be nothing more than Sovereign's influence on his mind convincing him of the absurd notion that the Reapers would ever be interested in sparing any species that could prove to be valuable servants. The Reapers aren't even interested in conquest as a normal society understands the concept, and their idea of "enslaving a useful species" is to use genetic engineering and cybernetics to turn them into unrecognizable, unthinking, disposable troops. The extent of Saren's madness is such that, should Shepard prove capable of convincing him to see it, he will blow his own brains out.]]
*** A salarian STG operative suffers far more blatant madness [[spoiler: because Saren is using him to study Indoctrination]] to the point where he'll kill himself by ramming himself head-first into the wall of his cell if he isn't released. If he ''is'' released, he turns hostile immediately.
** ''VideoGame/MassEffect2:''
*** A classic case happens to [[spoiler: the Cerberus research team aboard the derelict Reaper. They assume they're safe from Indoctrination because the Reaper has been dead for millions of years. Turns out the Indoctrination technology still works fine; the workers begin confusing the memories of others with their own, seeing apparitions reaching out of walls, and eventually turning themselves into Husks by using the Reaper's dragon's teeth to commit ritual suicide.]]
*** [[spoiler: Amanda Kenson comes to believe that the incomprehensibility of the Reapers is worth considering when judging the desirability of stopping the cycle. Her reasoning is that life continues even though the Reapers have perpetuated the cycle many times. This actually sounds innocent, if ignorant, when taken at face value, but by now Shepard and the player know enough about to Reapers to realize that this excuse essentially boils down to saying "The Reapers ''only'' kill space-faring civilizations, so we can't judge them as evil."]]
** ''VideoGame/MassEffect3:'' [[spoiler: The Illusive Man effectively replaces Saren.]] His ExpandedUniverse OriginStory suggests he's actually been fighting off Indoctrination for ''decades,'' but he's succumbed to it fully sometime between the second and third games. Once he starts convincing himself that [[spoiler: protecting humanity from the Reapers means controlling them instead of stopping them in any way possible,]] he causes nothing but delay and disaster for Shepard's efforts. Ironically, it turns out his goal ''is'' achievable, but because his belief in it is born out of madness instead of any actual evidence, his own efforts were useless and doomed to failure.
* ''Videogame/SunlessSkies:'' Staring unprotected at the stars for too long will slowly erode anyone's sanity until there's nothing left but a violent, gibbering madman. Locomotive windows need to be heavily colored and stained to ward against this effect, and even then some crews completely lose it anyway by dint of being out too long. Marauders are common victims, and Star-Maddened Explorers are locomotives covered in nonexistant constellations whose crews have succumbed ''completely'', to the point of being the only locomotive-based enemy to try and ram you.

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* ''Webcomic/{{Freefall}}'': Winston suffers from an irrational fear of space travel. So during a space flight he has to be kept in hibernation for most of the trip due to fears that he will go crazy and try to walk out the airlock.

* A short story on ''365 Tomorrows'' involved walking out in space driving an astronaut to suicide. It implied that it was a fairly common circumstance.
* ''WebOriginal/CaptainsLog'' chronicles a crew of space explorers descending into madness and depravity as the boredome and isolation get to them.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow'' actually had an episode titled [[TropeNamer "Space Madness"]]. In it, the tedium of space travel (and a diet consisting entirely of [[FoodPills nutrient pastes]]) starts to get to Commander Hoek (Ren) and he starts to lose his mind (however little there is of it to lose in the first place). Cadet Stimpy was forced to restrain him, but Hoek believes that Stimpy is the one who has Space Madness and plots to get rid of him.

* This trope likely originated in 1950's experiments designed to test the effects of working in a cramped, low-oxygen environment -- which could result in hallucinations and other signs of mental stress. Of course, this had more to do with the [[GoMadFromTheIsolation isolation]] and [[CabinFever sense of claustrophobia]] created by such experiments, but as no-one had actually gone up into space at the time the results were not encouraging. However, the Trope does not apply to the relatively short missions that the astronauts and cosmonauts undertook in the 1960's (the longest was about 15 days). The problem begins when longer duration missions start.
* The last Skylab crew, in space for 80 days, [[http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/true-life/on-strike-in-outer-space famously were thought to have went on strike]], switching off all communications and taking a day off after being driven to exasperation by a grueling schedule, [[BigBrotherIsWatchingYou their every action being constantly dictated and monitored]] by MissionControl, and the fact that [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking everything in Skylab seemed to be colored brown]].[[note]]What actually happened was far more mundane: they accidentally failed to contact Earth for a brief period because of scheduling confusion, which was interpreted on the ground as a strike and reported that way by the media, an idea that was then perpetuated even when it was realised what had actually happened. Tensions were high and mediation talks had to be held with Mission Control about their anger at the micromanagement, but the crew ended up achieving a huge amount in their time in space. [[/note]]

** One of the lessons taken away from this experiment was that the best remedy for this trope is probably the simplest; make sure that all the participants have plenty to ''do''. This is harder than it sounds, because piloting a spacecraft is a task that consists of short bursts of complex mathematical calculations -which, unless something has gone spectacularly wrong, will be handled by computer- followed by anything from hours to months of waiting. Lightweight, compact storage media for books, music and other entertainment media might be as crucial to the feasibility of manned spaceflight as any development in the field of rocketry.

* It is often said that the intellectual/academic speciality most likely to kill themselves is that of the astronomer and cosmologist. Perhaps this is what gave Douglas Adams the idea of the Total Perspective Vortex: astronomers are contractually bound to stare into it night after night and contemplate infinity in a direct and un-theoretical way, thus getting a very clear picture of how small and insignificant the human race is, in the grand scheme of things.

*** They should give them access to [[TVTropesWillRuinYourLife TV Tropes]].

* The last Skylab crew, in space for 80 days, [[http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/true-life/on-strike-in-outer-space famously went on strike]], switching off all communications and taking a day off after being driven to exasperation by a grueling schedule, [[BigBrotherIsWatchingYou their every action being constantly dictated and monitored]] by MissionControl, and the fact that [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking everything in Skylab seemed to be colored brown]].
** Actually a subversion of this trope. They never went on strike: they accidentally failed to contact Earth for a brief period because of scheduling confusion, which was interpreted on the ground as a strike and reported that way by the media, an idea that was then perpetuated even when it was realised what had actually happened. Tensions were high and mediation talks had to be held with Mission Control about their anger at the micromanagement, but the crew ended up achieving a huge amount in their time in space.

** Played with in ''Literature/TheNakedSun''. Elijah Baley can barely keep it together the first time he travels into outer space, but that's because everyone raised in the domed cities of Earth suffers from agoraphobia, and so he can't cope with knowing that he's surrounded by all that 'space'.

* Stated as the cause of the Demon Pirates' bizarre, disjointed speech patterns and homicidal aggressiveness in ''VideoGame/TachyonTheFringe''. An unspecified 'something' in the pirates' nebula seriously scrambles their neural pathways over an extended period of exposure, and not even the hermetic sealing of a spaceship is proof against it. There are cases where individuals removed from the nebula slowly recover [[AddedAlliterativeAppeal some shaky semblance of sanity]], indicating that it might well be the nebula itself that is responsible for the degeneration.

* An early ''Comicbook/{{Legion Of Super-Heroes}}'' story had Sun Boy snapping from too many consecutive deep space missions, after which the Legion Constitution was amended to require mandatory downtime every so often.

* Figures largely into the film ''Film/{{Pandorum}}''. "Pandorum" is actually their term for space madness.
** It's not entirely clear if Pandorum is the result of being in space for a long time or a side effect of the HumanPopsicle process. Could be a mix of the two.

** Also, in the episode "Crackers Don't Matter", where [[spoiler: the light from a pulsar makes everyone lose their marbles for a time. Subverted in that it turns out the guy who told them it would do that was lying to cover up his own psychic attack.]]

* In ''Fanfic/RocketshipVoyager'', space madness is just a catchall phrase for any number of psychological conditions. In Captain Janeway's BackStory, she and several other female crewmembers mutinied against their officers who wanted to use them as a BabyFactory. To avoid an embarrassing court-martial, the women are described as having merely 'detained' their officers for their own safety after they went space-mad (it helps that the captain has GoneMadFromTheIsolation after being sealed up in an airlock by the mutineers). Exposure to the infinity of space can also lead to insanity: {{fishbowl helmet}}s have focal points painted on them to prevent this, and Captain Janeway has a brief panic attack when she's [[StrappedToARocket sealed up in a cargo rocket]] and shot out of a torpedo tube.

[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/132fa42c85780b286fd98e9cfeb9b6bdd7e591cbe0263c9888a370e7fc991d1a_large.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[VoiceOfTheLegion ''SPACE MADNESS''.]]]]

* In an episode of ''Series/ICarly'', the gang is given the chance to film an episode of their show in space, but first must pass the space tests including spending time in a cramped space pod. At first, it seems Freddie and Sam might cause them to lose, but Carly is the one who breaks due to severe claustrophobia.

* ''Mutiny in Outer Space'' (1965). The commander of the SpaceStation is suffering from 'space raptures', which cause hallucinations and affect judgment. This is bad news when the station has become contaminated by an alien fungus, thus leading to the eponymous 'mutiny' as the crew attempt to remove him from command.

* ''Conquest of Space'' (George Pal's 1955 sci-fi flop after his previous blockbusters ''Film/DestinationMoon'' and ''Film/WhenWorldsCollide''). The doctor on [[SpaceStation The Wheel]] diagnoses one man who cracks up as having "somatic dysphasia", described in LaymansTerms as "space fatigue". Apparently everyone working in outer space suffers from it but the symptoms are usually minor, and easily cured by returning the patient to Earth. For those selected for the first Mars expedition, already under stress through the competitive selection process, the issue is more serious. The general in charge of the mission begins to crack, and in a religious fervor tries to sabotage the spacecraft [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow in the belief that Man is not meant to leave planet Earth]].

Something about the deep recesses of outer space seems to inspire insanity in a lot of fictional characters. Maybe it's the [[GoMadFromTheIsolation loneliness]] (what with them being cut-off from the rest of their kind), the feeling of insignificance it inspires, or more specifically to a story the[[GoMadFromTheRevelation things that mankind was never meant to encounter]]. And as if the deprivation of social interaction isn't bad enough, there is also the effect of spending too many weeks with nothing productive to do between course corrections. Then there's the added lack of basic features of the environment on Earth such as gravity strong enough to feel, days and nights, and an atmosphere which leads the human mind that can't handle [[NothingIsScarier the emptiness itself]], for any length of time, to start making things up to fill it. Regardless, a good chunk of fiction seems to link outer space with insanity. Can occur with LudicrousSpeed.

Something about the deep recesses of outer space seems to inspire insanity in a lot of fictional characters. Maybe it's the [[GoMadFromTheIsolation loneliness]], the feeling of insignificance it inspires, or [[GoMadFromTheRevelation things that mankind was never meant to encounter]]. Or, perhaps, HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace. Or the mind that can't handle [[NothingIsScarier the emptiness itself]] long enough starts to make things up to fill it. Sometimes it's just an effect of spending too many weeks with nothing productive to do between course corrections. And then there's the lack of basic features of the environment on Earth such as gravity strong enough to feel, days and nights, and an atmosphere. Regardless, a good chunk of fiction seems to link outer space with insanity. Can occur with LudicrousSpeed.