Crew Interactions and Autonomy During Long-Duration Isolation and Confinement (105-Day Russian Chamber Study)
Principal Investigator:
Nick Kanas, M.D.
Organization:
University of California, San Francisco
Spaceflight is inherently a high-stress environment. Long-duration spaceflight is an even more stressful environment, especially missions beyond low-Earth orbit. Two of the additional stressors for missions beyond low-Earth orbit are communications delays due to the distance from the Earth and the necessity of crews to be completely self-sufficient, resulting in more autonomy for crew members.
Dr. Nick Kanas is leading a project to study the mood, interpersonal interactions and performance of crew members and mission control personnel during periods of low and high autonomy in the 105-day spaceflight simulation in Russia. Dr. Kanas and his colleagues hypothesize that the mood, group interaction and performance of crew members will be as good or better during high autonomy periods compared to low autonomy periods. They anticipate a high autonomy setting will result in more positive affect, greater cohesion and less work pressure within the crew. The researchers will also look at the impact on mission control personnel and the crew???s relationship with controllers and analyze other impacts of isolation and confinement, such as cultural differences among the crew and flight controllers and leadership roles.
This study will help in the planning of future long-duration missions by providing information about individual and group performance during periods of high autonomy.
NASA Taskbook Entry
Crew members participating in long-duration space missions beyond the Earth-moon environment will have more autonomy than in previous on-orbit missions or missions to the moon. During previous on-orbit and lunar space missions, Mission Control personnel generally have timelined and coordinated crew member work schedules, and crew to ground communications have been frequent and in real time. However, during future expeditionary missions beyond the Earth-moon environment, the long distances and mission durations will increase crew member autonomy dramatically. Crew members will be responsible for planning most of their work schedules and dealing with any emergencies that arise. Furthermore, there will be lags in two-way communication with the Earth of up to 44 minutes from the surface of Mars. It is not known how this increased autonomy will affect crew member performance and safety, and what the impact will be on Mission Control operations on Earth.
Specific Aims
- Assess the impact of higher crew member autonomy on crew and Mission Control mood and group interpersonal climate (using previous questionnaire scales)
- Assess crew member individual and group work-planning freedom, work performance efficiency, and work performance accuracy (using newly constructed pilot measures).
Our study of increased crew member autonomy was conducted through the Mars 500 program at the Institute for Biomedical Problems in Moscow, Russia. The Mars 500 program is designed to study the performance and interactions of a group of six individuals confined for 520 days (program began in June 2010). The lower floor of the simulation habitat contains living and laboratory areas for the crew, and the upper floor is a mock-up of the Mars surface on which the crew can simulate geological and other planetary activities. We participated in a 105-Day mission simulation from March 31 - July 14, 2009.
In order to study the impact of high-versus-low crew autonomy on crew members and Mission Control personnel, we studied the six men in the isolation chamber, along with 18 outside individuals who monitored their activities in a simulated Mission Control. During the first 10 weeks of the mission, the crew interacted with Mission Control under a low-autonomy condition, where the latter developed the work schedule and communicated with the former in real time. During the last 5 weeks, a high-autonomy condition was instituted, where crew members planned and revised their work schedule, and where a 40-minute, Mars-like communication delay occurred with the outside monitors.
Our methodology was similar to that used in our previous on-orbit studies involving the Mir Space Station and the International Space Station, where we evaluated mood and group interpersonal climate, both in space and in Mission Control. After signing informed consent, crew and Mission Control subjects participating in the 105-Day mission simulation, completed a weekly study questionnaire that included items from the Profile of Mood States and two group climate measures (the Group Environment Scale and the Work Environment Scale). From these measures, weekly mean subscale scores were calculated that gave us an indication of psychological constructs such as tension and other emotional states, group cohesion and the task and support roles of the leader. Additionally, we constructed and piloted six new weekly questions that attempted to measure crew member individual and group work planning freedom, work performance efficiency and work performance accuracy.
The results of these questionnaires suggested that high work autonomy was well received by the crew, mission goals were accomplished and there were no adverse, negative effects. During the high autonomy period, crew member mood and self-direction were reported as being better, but Mission Control personnel reported more anxiety and work role confusion. Despite scoring lower in work pressure overall, the four Russian crew members reported a greater rise in work pressure from low-to-high autonomy than the two European crew members. In contrast, the European crew members reported a greater rise in negative, dysphoric mood in going from low-to-high autonomy, whereas the Russians’ emotional state remained the same or slightly improved. Work freedom was rated slightly higher during high autonomy, but work performance was generally the same overall, although Russian scores increased and European scores decreased on all four performance measures.
In 2006, we were directed by NASA Johnson Space Center to study the impact of high autonomy on crew members and monitoring personnel involved with a variety of space simulation missions conducted on Earth in an effort to prepare for expeditionary missions to Mars and other distant locations. This ground simulation study was conducted through the Mars 500 program at the Institute for Biomedical Problems in Moscow, Russia. The Mars 500 program is designed to study the performance and interactions of a group of six individuals confined for 520 days. We also participated in a 105-Day pilot simulation.
Results from this study indicated that increased crew autonomy can be safe and advantageous. It is time to study the effects of high autonomy with larger subject samples during on-orbit space missions (e.g., to the International Space Station) in order to prepare for future deep space exploratory missions, where high autonomy will be the norm.
Additionally, some of findings contributed to recommendations regarding the recent Chilean miner isolation event.
