Crewmember and crew-ground interactions during International Space Station missions

Abstract

During International Space Station (ISS) missions, international crewmembers will be engaged in complicated activities over long periods of time. A number of interpersonal issues likely to impact on these missions must be addressed in order to ensure healthy crewmember interactions and optimal performance. A review of the literature of space analog studies on earth, anecdotal reports from previous space missions, and our study of astronauts and cosmonauts during the Shuttle/Mir program have isolated crew tension, cohesion, leadership role, and the displacement of negative feelings from crewmembers to mission control personnel as important interpersonal issues. Cultural and language differences among crewmembers and people on the ground also may be important factors that influence crew performance and well being. Hypotheses related to these interpersonal issues will be tested by having the crewmembers and personnel in mission control who are involved with at least five ISS missions evaluate their mood and their interpersonal environment. Americans, Russians, and people from other nations involved with the missions will be studied. The research instrument will consist of items from three standard mood and interpersonal group climate questionnaires, a critical incident log, and a culture and language questionnaire. The culture and language questionnaire will be administered once before each mission. The other measures will be completed on a weekly basis before, during, and after each mission and will take 15-20 minutes to This material is declared a work of the U.S. Government and is not subject to copyright protection in the United States. The research described in this manuscript was funded by NASA Contracts #NAS9-19411 and #NAS9-98093. fill out. On-orbit entries will use the human research facility computers, and data will be stored on PCMCIA hard drives and brought back to Earth on returning Space Shuttles. The hypotheses will be tested using piecewise statistical methods developed for longitudinal data. The findings from this study should have direct application for the development of countermeasures for future long-duration space missions.