High versus low crewmember autonomy during a 105-day Mars simulation mission

Abstract

Crewmembers participating in long-duration space expeditions beyond the Earth–Moon environment will have more autonomy than in previous on-orbit missions or missions to the Moon. In order to study the impact of high versus low crew autonomy on crewmembers and mission control personnel we studied 6 men who were isolated for 105 days in a Mars mission simulator at the Institute for Biomedical Problems in Moscow, along with 18 outside individuals who monitored their activities in a simulated mission control. During the first 10 weeks of the isolation the crew interacted with mission control under a low autonomy condition, where the latter developed the work schedule and communicated with the former in real time. During the last 5 weeks a high autonomy condition was instituted, where crewmembers planned and revised their work schedule and where a Mars-like communication time delay occurred with the outside monitors. Both the crew and mission control subjects completed weekly measures of mood, group interpersonal climate, work freedom, and performance. The results suggested that high work autonomy was well received by the crew, mission goals were accomplished, and there were no adverse effects. During the high autonomy period, crewmember mood and self-direction were reported as being better but the mission control personnel reported more anxiety and work role confusion. Despite scoring lower in work pressure overall, the four Russian crewmembers reported a greater rise in work pressure from low to high autonomy than the two Europeans. In contrast, the European crewmembers reported a greater rise in negative dysphoric mood in going from low to high autonomy, whereas the Russians′ emotional state remained the same or slightly improved. Work freedom was rated slightly higher during high autonomy, but work performance was about the same overall, although Russian scores increased and European scores decreased on all four performance measures. It is time to study the effects of high autonomy with larger subject samples during on-orbit space missions (e.g., to the International Space Station) in order to prepare for future deep space exploratory missions, where high autonomy will be the norm.