Readiness to Perform in a Space Analog Environment
Principal Investigator:
David F. Dinges, Ph.D.
Organization:
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Dr. David F. Dinges led a project to study the feasibility of objectively measuring the behavioral performance levels of crew members during two underwater space analog missions, NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) 9 and 12.
The project had three main goals. The first was to test the usefulness of the three-minute Psychomotor Vigilance Test (PVT) Self Test, which is used to determine the fatigue level of crew members. The second goal was to acquire salivary cortisol, used to measure stress levels in a person. The final major objective was to measure the sleep-wake patterns of crew members using wrist actigraphs and sleep logs.
The technologies tested during NEEMO 9 and 12 have potential benefits for a number of occupations on Earth, including first responders, military personnel and emergency personnel.
NASA Taskbook Entry
NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) has astronauts live in the NOAA Aquarius habitat (19 meters underwater off the coast of Florida). Aquarius is an excellent space analog environment for challenges in the area of behavior and performance such as confinement, limited personal space, isolation, workload timeline demands, extravehicular activity (EVA), environmental risk and no quick return to surface in an emergency.
Aquarius is operated by the National Underwater Research Center of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. NEEMO missions work best for research that is directed toward proof of concept and feasibility studies in isolated and extreme environments. Research that needs testing in an analog mission works well in a NEEMO setting as it gives the researcher an idea of how the product works in a confined, but crowded, environment focused on multiple mission accomplishments.
The eighteen-day NEEMO 9 mission, from April 3-20, 2006, was the longest NEEMO mission thus far. It was co-sponsored by NASA, the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI), the Army's Telemedicine & Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC), Canada's Centre for Minimal Access Surgery (CMAS) at the University of Ontario, Hamilton, and NOAA Undersea Research Center (NURC).
Payload projects included:
- Telesurgery and medical task performance experiments.
- Underwater mapping.
- EVA trials to test center of gravity configurations for the future exploration spacesuit.
- Feasibility study of behavioral performance measures.
This report contains the results of payload project # 4, which included five substudies of the technical feasibility to assess the functioning of crew members (as individuals and as a team) in the close confinements and high-tempo environment of NEEMO 9. The results were highly informative, as a number of the behavior/performance technologies worked very well in NEEMO 9. However, as in the case of all feasibility studies, the high-fidelity environment, including the configuration of Aquarius, the nature of the undersea environment, and the operational demands of the mission resulted in some hardware failures, timeline pressures, behavior monitoring difficulties and consequently, some data loss. Thus, NEEMO 9 provided an excellent first-experience learning opportunity for the NASA behavior and performance area. The crew was outstanding in the time and effort they put into every performance assessment, and their willingness to adjust to the idiosyncratic aspects of some of the assessments. Habitat support staff and the topside team also contributed greatly to the success of the feasibility assessments. The NEEMO 9 performance technology feasibility study proved to be exceptionally valuable for identifying in the behavioral area what works well, what does not and what could be improved to minimize astronaut burden and data loss.
Data acquisition was also completed in NEEMO 12 (Vigilance, Stress and Sleep/Wake Measures in NEEMO 12 - A Simulated Space Environment). The goal of this study was to monitor performance, stress and sleep-wake patterns in four crew members and three Aquarius habitat personnel during the NEEMO 12 mission (March 6-17, 2007).
Specific Aims
- Test the usefulness of the three-minute Psychomotor Vigilance Test (PVT);
- Acquire salivary cortisol measures of stress; and
- Monitor sleep-wake patterns using ambulatory technology (wrist actigraphs and sleep logs).
Data acquisition in NEEMO 12 was successful. A total of 160 PVT performance tests were acquired, 153 salivary cortisol measures were obtained, and 40 days of wrist actigraphy, sleep-wake diary and subjective fatigue and stress scales were acquired, for a 98 percent adherence rate. The salivary cortisol and subjective ratings revealed no elevated stress during NEEMO 12, and the wrist actigraphy, sleep-wake diary and subjective fatigue data from NEEMO 12 revealed no sleep loss or elevated fatigue. These outcomes made the three-minute PVT performance data from NEEMO 12 useful for adding to the normative PVT performance database for astronauts begun with PVT data from NEEMO 9. The resulting larger three-minute PVT performance database on astronauts and aquanauts will be used to generate a PVT SelfTest user interface for use by astronauts in spaceflight.
The neurobehavioral, psychosocial and physiological monitoring technologies used in NEEMO 9 and 12 have considerable potential for many Earth-based applications, especially those situations in which monitoring of cognitive readiness, sleep need, stress levels and team cohesion are needed to help ensure human effectiveness (e.g., in first responders, military personnel and emergency personnel).
