Objective Monitoring of Crew Neurobehavioral Functions in Mars 520-Day Simulation
Principal Investigator:
David F. Dinges, Ph.D.
Organization:
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania
As space missions become longer, the risks and consequences of neurobehavioral problems (e.g., stress reactions, fatigue, asthenia, depression, crew conflicts) increase and pose a threat to performance and mission success. To prevent problems from becoming serious, novel, unobtrusive, objective ways to reliably detect stress-related reactions in crew members will be essential.
This project is part of the Mars 520-day experiment at the Institute for Biomedical Problems in Moscow. The activity involves a six-person international crew confined in a ground-based spacecraft for 520 days during a high-fidelity simulated mission to Mars. The Mars 520-day experiment offers a unique and critically-needed opportunity for evaluating across a prolonged mission the behavioral health and performance of crew members. Led by Dr. David F. Dinges, this project uses novel, minimally obtrusive ways to reliably detect stress, fatigue and negative emotional states. Several of the technologies that are being used were developed by Dinges and his collaborators from research supported by NSBRI and NASA.
NASA Taskbook Entry
Specific Aims
1) Establish the extent to which prolonged confinement up to 520 days, under simulated space flight conditions (e.g., social isolation, time delays, simulated emergencies, etc.) affects positive and negative mood states and mood expressions across time in mission.
2) Establish the extent to which prolonged confinement up to 520 days, under simulated space flight conditions affects the stability of psychomotor vigilance performance across time in mission.
3) Establish the extent to which prolonged confinement up to 520 days, under simulated spaceflight conditions affects the frequency of perceived conflicts and interpersonal tension across time in mission.
4) Establish the extent to which prolonged confinement up to 520 days, under simulated spaceflight conditions affects sleep duration, sleep quality, and both subjective and objective manifestations of fatigue.
5) Establish the extent to which prolonged confinement under simulated space flight conditions affects waking activity levels.
Astronauts/Cosmonauts on long-duration missions will endure the isolation and confinement of space to a greater degree than previous travelers. In order to be able to carry out critical asks during such missions, crews must maintain a high level of neurobehavioral and psychosocial performance fitness in the face of prolonged isolation, demanding workload and work schedules, and other stressors.
The Russian Institute for Biomedical Problems (IBMP) 520-day simulated mission to Mars (in a special simulated “spacecraft” chamber located at IBMP in Moscow) offers a unique and critically-needed opportunity for evaluating key aspects of crewmembers’ neurobehavioral functions (i.e., mood, cognitive performance), sleep and wake activity patterns, and psychosocial conflicts while confined and socially isolated for a period of time longer than the 180-day missions currently occurring on ISS, and longer than the longest spaceflight mission conducted to date by any country. This project uses novel, minimally obtrusive technologies to reliably detect stress, fatigue, performance changes, negative emotional states, and conflicts in the 6 male crewmembers participating in IBMP’s 520-day simulated Mars mission. Our technologies were tested for feasibility in IBMP’s 105-day pilot study in the same simulated spacecraft chamber being used in the Mars 520-day study. Lessons learned from the 105-day pilot project helped to improve the reliability of our assessments for the 520-day mission.
This project uses two cutting-edge objective technologies—the PVT Self Test and optical computer recognition (OCR) of facial expressions of fatigue, stress and emotions—that we have developed and validated in laboratory and analog studies. Both the PVT Self test and OCR videos are being obtained on crewmembers using modified notebook computers, with 10-minute data samples obtained twice a day (a.m. and p.m.), once each week throughout the mission, to keep the assessments minimally obtrusive while maintaining the ability to acquire data throughout the 520-day mission—as stated above, the priority aims of the study focus on the unique feature of the Mars 520 analog, namely the 520-day mission duration. In addition to PVT Self Test and OCR facial video, our weekly test sessions of crewmembers include subjective assessments of sleep quality, workload, conflicts, and mood states, using brief validated visual analog scales (VAS), the Profile of Mood States Short Form (POMS-SF) and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II), and a novel conflict-tension frequency scale.
The 520-day mission began with hatch closing on June 3, 2010 (June 4 was mission day 1). A combination of a NASA/NSBRI Liaison at IBMP and an engineering company (Pulsar Informatics, Inc.) have greatly facilitated data acquisition from the technologies we deployed in the IBMP chamber, while redundant technology (i.e., backups) have facilitated high quality data. Data acquisition has been very successful to date using the procedures we developed based on lessons learned from the 105-day pilot study in the chamber. The six crewmembers completed all (100%) baseline (pre-mission) data acquisitions. Data acquisition was completed November 4, 2011. Data acquisition rates were >98.0% complete (73,203 hours of data) for actigraphy throughout the 520-day study and 100% complete (888 test bouts) for subjective sleep reports and PVT-B performance tests.
