Cultural ethology as a new approach of interplanetary crew's behavior

Abstract

From an evolutionary perspective, during short-term and medium-term orbital flights, human beings developed new spatial and motor behaviors to compensate for the lack of terrestrial gravity. Past space ethological studies have shown adaptive strategies to the tri-dimensional environment, with the goal of optimizing relationships between the astronaut and unusual sensorial-motor conditions. During a long-term interplanetary journey, crewmembers will have to develop new individual and social behaviors to adapt, far from earth, to isolation and confinement and as a result to extreme conditions of living and working together. Recent space psychological studies pointed out that heterogeneity is a feature of interplanetary crews, based on personality, gender mixing, internationality and diversity of backgrounds. Intercultural issues could arise between space voyagers. As a new approach we propose to emphasize the behavioral strategies of human groups' adaptation to this new multicultural dimension of the environment. MethodologyPotential outcomes of applying ethological methods to the study of culture-specific human behaviors are investigated. Ethological and anthropological tools are used, based on observations and descriptions of individuals acting in a micro-society with their rules for living, their work habits and their specific customs and values. We focus the present study on interpersonal communications and organizations in diverse space simulation experiments and analogous environments (Mars-500 experiment, Mars Desert Research Station - MDRS, Tara-Arctic expedition and Concordia South pole station). ResultsDuring the Mars-500 experiment, the crewmembers (RU, EU, CH) were differently involved in the activities of daily living. At MDRS in the Desert of Utah, the crewmembers (FR, US, AU, DK) communicated differently in verbal discussions. During the Tara drift in the pack ice, the crewmembers (FR, MC, EE, NZ, NO) were differently positioned in the collective space. At Concordia station, the crewmembers (IT, FR) were grouped preferentially according to their living habits. The results show that cultural heterogeneity has different effects on interpersonal communications and organizations. When considering the isolated and confined crews like an evolving micro-society in unexplored environments, our preliminary analysis raises new questions as to the phylogenetic and epigenetic bases to which cultural ethology linked to anthropology may help to answer. ConclusionCultural values, in addition to social values and personal values, have to be taken into consideration for future space exploration.