Research into the effects of simulated space habitats on crews under controlled and isolated conditions

Current international roadmaps for manned space exploration envision month-long lunar visits within the next few decades, with manned missions to Mars the long-term goal. The psychological effects of manned spaceflight, particularly in terms of isolation and containment, need to be researched prior to manned missions in space.

For astronauts to not only survive but thrive in alien environments, practice is required. Practice includes operations on the ISS, but the ISS cannot simulate all aspects of a lunar or Mars mission, such as surface operations or long periods without sunlight. Therefore, research will be conducted under controlled and isolated conditions in simulated space habitats to gain insights into the impact of such conditions on research subjects and their impact on crew well-being and success.

Likewise, an analog environment cannot fully replicate that of the Moon or Mars, but a variety of analog environments simulating various aspects of the off-world environment can be used together to prepare for future missions. In a recent review in Space: Science & Technology, Matej Poliaček, a professional and independent researcher from the aerospace industry, reviewed the experiments conducted during two separate 15-day missions at the LunAres research base in Piła, Poland, and provided the background, methodology, results and conclusions.

First, the author presented material and methods and presented the LunAres habitat, location and the two different missions. The habitat was completely isolated from the outside environment – the complete isolation from the outside world, including the absence of windows and thus the complete absence of daylight, made it possible to study the effects of complete isolation on the crew, as well as experiments related to circadian rhythm in humans.

The habitat consisted of a dome-shaped living area to which several modules were attached. Two analogous missions, ARES-III and LEARN, were carried out in the LunAres Habitat in the summer of 2018 for 2 weeks each. The missions were conducted in lunar/mars time, meaning the crew was out of sync with the external mission control crew, who were off-habitat and continued to operate in Earth time.

The Mission Control Crew (MCC) was responsible for coordinating the mission from the outside and communicating with the crew on a daily basis, just like real manned missions. ARES-III was a Mars simulation mission, crewed by six crew members. As a Mars analogue, the crew experienced a 20-minute time lag when communicating with mission control.

The primary method of communication was text communication and in some cases voice communication was used for updates. The ARES III crew was forced to eat only lyophilized foods for lunch and dinner. The LEARN mission was conducted by five crew members.

Because there was only a 1.3-second communication time lag between the Earth and the Moon, communication between the crew and MCC was conducted using both video and voice methods, as well as text. The LEARN analog astronaut crew was also forced to eat only lyophilized (freeze-dried) food for the entire duration of the mission.

Then the author presented all the experiments conducted by the two crews, including research and non-research activities. This part was divided into three sub-parts, the first concerned the common activities common between the two crews. Using the same methodology, both collected cognitive function, environmental, physiological and inventory data, resulting in a larger data set that allowed comparisons between the two missions for different human factors.

The joint activities consisted of stress and cognition-in-isolation experiments with the aim to investigate and to study stress responses (cortisol and oxidative stress) and cognitive performance in several cognitive domains (general, spatial and non-spatial) over the course of isolation monitor.

Food intake, exercise, medical examination, daily reporting, and several non-research activities also generated a larger data set for future investigation.

The second data set related to the activities of the ARES III mission. The experiments included the following: effects of consuming freeze-dried food on oral health and salivation, influence of isolation on hearing, feelings of safety in the isolated habitat, and studies of earthworm growth in different soil compositions.

The main objective of this analogous mission was to conduct neuropsychological research on the effects of living in isolation and captivity and to study a low-resource environment on stress responses, group dynamics, circadian rhythm, cognition and microbiota. As with most analog missions (e.g. at the Mars Desert Research Station), the main experiment is to observe crew dynamics.

In addition, the Mars mission analyzed the physical performances of the crew and compared them to performances achieved during similar activities on Mars Research Desert Station missions and to the impact of the constraint on their efficiency when conducting a remotely operated operation of a rover. The third, the activities of the LEARN mission.

Similar to ARES-III, the goals were to conduct neuropsychological research and study the effects of a resource-poor environment. In addition, the mission included studies on the influence of freeze-dried food on the crew’s oral health, the sense of security in isolation and several biologically oriented experiments.

Finally, there was a brief discussion and a conclusion on the corresponding challenges of the missions.

From the above isolation conditions, experiments, and activities, it became clear that much work was being done to answer the biggest questions for future human exploration: how did isolation, reduced space, busy schedules, unique members, and personalities who created their own carried? can the social, cultural and emotional background affect the mission and the health of the astronauts?

There were several questions about what type of crew can be considered ideal: Was it a same-sex crew? Did the crew members come from different cultures and backgrounds? Should they have a similar background or should they cover as wide a range of skills as possible? Should they all be about the same age?

Analog astronauts were the guinea pigs of these questions. Although the author did not directly answer the above questions, it was an example of how things were done and then new, more detailed investigations should be proposed to take action to solve these problems.

Provided by Beijing Institute of Technology Press Co.,Ltd