Space psychology

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Space psychology refers to applying psychology to advise human spaceflight. This includes applying industrial and organizational psychology to team selection, individual and team mental preparation, team training, and ongoing psychological support, [1] and applying human factors and ergonomics to the construction of spacecraft to ensure sufficient habitability.

Contents

Components of industrial/organizational psychology

The field is necessary for planning for and accomplishing successful human spaceflight missions by ensuring readiness for the unique physiological and psychological challenges posed by spending extended time in closed isolated environments like spacecraft. It is critical that each team member functions individually and as a team in order to avoid human error, overcome unforeseeable challenges, and complete the mission. Due to the importance of team reliance on mission success, the field has focused on team composition and cohesion in spaceflight missions ever since 1957's Project Mercury. This involves applying and conducting research from social psychology, group dynamics, group performance and team psychology, and applying it to select team members that will be able to live together in close quarters for an extended amount of time, and create team training programs that improve team performance. [2] In addition to teamwork, there is an assortment of psychological and sociological effects of spaceflight that needs to be addressed in order to plan for successful space missions, such as loneliness, unavailability of familial mental health support, elevated levels of stress due to demanding tasks, and reduced material comforts.

Components of human factors and ergonomics

To ensure habitability of constructed spacecraft, human factors and ergonomics specialists must advise on environmental requirements such as lighting, room layout and design, sound requirements, and solutions for the physiological challenges posed by being in an environment without gravity. [3]

Human Factor in space has to deal not only with adapting to different physical habitats, but also to different social habitats and different communication settings. New activities such as performing human extravehicular activity (EVA) beyond the low Earth orbit environment require complex synchronization methods. The ergonomic approach to these environments has to include new variables, such as time delay in communication due to speed of light transmission limitations. Astronauts will become increasingly isolated from Earth-based mission support and thus will rely heavily on their own decision-making capabilities and onboard tools to accomplish proposed EVA mission objectives. [4]

Research

Most published research specific to space psychology has been conducted by NASAs Human Systems Integration Division. [5] Tests conducted to ensure team success include putting a team in airtight quarters on earth for an extended period of time: in the Lunar-Mars Life Support Test. [6] In the context of space flight, teamwork is an essential ingredient in successful missions. A variety of adverse influences may negatively impact the performance of mission teams both on the ground and in flight. Such influences may include physical stressors on the organism such as diurnal disruption, effects of microgravity, injury, or task overload as well as psychological factors such as social isolation, role overload, or interpersonal conflict among team members. Given the importance of team effectiveness, NASA's Behavioral Health and Performance Element (BHP) has identified a need to monitor the functioning of teams, primarily using unobtrusive means. The purpose of such monitoring lies in providing a stream of indicators that can serve several operational goals:

  1. Monitoring during personnel selection activities can provide input for the selection of compatible team members and of individuals with psychological profiles suited to teamwork in extreme environments and situations.
  2. Monitoring during training activities can provide diagnostic information useful in guiding further instruction and coaching as well as in determining the composition of teams prior to mission deployment.
  3. Monitoring during missions can provide forewarning of potential operational failures due to disruptions. [7]

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human spaceflight</span> Spaceflight with a crew or passengers

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mars Direct</span> Proposal for a crewed Mars mission

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Life-support system</span> Technology that allows survival in hostile environments

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Effect of spaceflight on the human body</span> Medical issues associated with spaceflight

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">MARS-500</span> Psychosocial isolation experiment in spaceflight research

The MARS-500 mission was a psychosocial isolation experiment conducted between 2007 and 2011 by Russia, the European Space Agency, and China, in preparation for an unspecified future crewed spaceflight to the planet Mars. The experiment's facility was located at the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Biomedical Problems (IBMP) in Moscow, Russia.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Space architecture</span> Architecture of off-planet habitable structures

Space architecture is the theory and practice of designing and building inhabited environments in outer space. This mission statement for space architecture was developed at the World Space Congress in Houston in 2002 by members of the Technical Aerospace Architecture Subcommittee of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). The architectural approach to spacecraft design addresses the total built environment. It is mainly based on the field of engineering, but also involves diverse disciplines such as physiology, psychology, and sociology.

Human outposts are artificially-created, controlled human habitats located in environments inhospitable for humans, such as on the ocean floor, in the Antarctic, in space, or on another planet.

The National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) was a NASA-funded consortium of institutions studying the health risks related to long-duration spaceflight and developing solutions to reduce those risks. The NSBRI was founded in 1997 through a NASA Cooperative Agreement. The founding director was Laurence R. Young of MIT. NSBRI's 16,400-square-foot headquarters facility was located in the BioScience Research Collaborative in Houston, Texas. The Institute shared the facility with Baylor College of Medicine's Center for Space Medicine. The official opening was held March 19, 2012.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonathan Dory</span> Human Systems Integration Lead at NASAs Johnson Space Center

Jonathan Robert Dory is a Human Systems Integration Lead at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas. He is Branch Chief of NASA's Habitability and Human Factors Branch, part of the Habitability and Environmental Factors Division at NASA/JSC. Dory supports crew safety and productivity on the International Space Station (ISS) Program by planning and assessing the on-orbit interior configuration of ISS, as well as performing anthropometric analysis of crew tasks. He contributes to the integrated operation of the Space Station while using 3D computer graphics and animation software as part of his daily work. In July 2002, Dory served as an aquanaut on the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations 3 crew.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Astronaut training</span> Preparing astronauts for space missions

Astronaut training describes the complex process of preparing astronauts in regions around the world for their space missions before, during and after the flight, which includes medical tests, physical training, extra-vehicular activity (EVA) training, procedure training, rehabilitation process, as well as training on experiments they will accomplish during their stay in space.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Astronaut organization in spaceflight missions</span>

Selection, training, cohesion and psychosocial adaptation influence performance and, as such, are relevant factors to consider while preparing for costly, long-duration spaceflight missions in which the performance objectives will be demanding, endurance will be tested and success will be critical.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HI-SEAS</span> Analog habitat for human spaceflight to Mars

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Psychological and sociological effects of spaceflight</span>

Psychological and sociological effects of space flight are important to understanding how to successfully achieve the goals of long-duration expeditionary missions. Although robotic spacecraft have landed on Mars, plans have also been discussed for a human expedition, perhaps in the 2030s, or as early as 2024 for a return mission.

References

  1. ↑ Freiberg, Peter. (1998). "Psychology keeps astronauts well grounded."Monitor, American Psychological Association, March Edition, p. 17
  2. ↑ Novotney, Amy. (2013). "I/O psychology goes to Mars" Monitor on Psychology
  3. ↑ Whitmire, Alexandra. (2014). "The Use of Psychology to Inform the Design of Future Space Vehicles and Habitats". American Psychological Association Convention Presentation
  4. ↑ Miller, Matthew (June 2015). "Information flow model of human extravehicular activity operations". 2015 IEEE Aerospace Conference. pp. 1–15. doi:10.1109/AERO.2015.7118942. hdl: 2060/20140013480 . ISBN   978-1-4799-5379-0. S2CID   6509400.
  5. ↑ Caldwell, Barrett. (2006). "Group Performance and space flight teams: Chapter 8" in Bowers, Salas and Jentsch. (2006). "Creating High-Tech Teams: Practical Guidance on Work Performance and Technology." American Psychological Association
  6. ↑ Nasa Lunar-Mars Life Support Test
  7. ↑ Veronica Maidel, & Jeffrey M. Stanton (2010), Unobtrusive Monitoring of Spaceflight Team Functioning. Literature Review and Operational Assessment for NASA Behavioral Health and Performance Element. School of Information Studies, Syracuse University.
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