Behavioral and biological effects of autonomous versus scheduled mission management in simulated space-dwelling groups

Logistical constraints during long-duration space expeditions will limit the ability of Earth-based mission control personnel to manage their astronaut crews and will thus increase the prevalence of autonomous operations. Despite this inevitability, little research exists regarding crew performance and psychosocial adaptation under such autonomous conditions. To this end, a newly-initiated study on crew management systems was conducted to assess crew performance effectiveness under rigid schedule-based management of crew activities by Mission Control versus more flexible, autonomous management of activities by the crews themselves. Nine volunteers formed three long-term crews and were extensively trained in a simulated planetary geological exploration task over the course of several months. Each crew then embarked on two separate 3–4 h missions in a counterbalanced sequence: Scheduled, in which the crews were directed by Mission Control according to a strict topographic and temporal region-searching sequence, and Autonomous, in which the well-trained crews received equivalent baseline support from Mission Control but were free to explore the planetary surface as they saw fit. Under the autonomous missions, performance in all three crews improved (more high-valued geologic samples were retrieved), subjective self-reports of negative emotional states decreased, unstructured debriefing logs contained fewer references to negative emotions and greater use of socially-referent language, and salivary cortisol output across the missions was attenuated. The present study provides evidence that crew autonomy may improve performance and help sustain if not enhance psychosocial adaptation and biobehavioral health. These controlled experimental data contribute to an emerging empirical database on crew autonomy which the international astronautics community may build upon for future research and ultimately draw upon when designing and managing missions.     

Piloted operations at a near-Earth object (NEO)

In late 2006, NASA's Constellation Program sponsored a study to examine the feasibility of sending a piloted Orion spacecraft to a near-Earth object. NEOs are asteroids or comets that have perihelion distances less than or equal to 1.3 astronomical units, and can have orbits that cross that of the Earth. Therefore, the most suitable targets for the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) are those NEOs in heliocentric orbits similar to Earth's (i.e. low inclination and low eccentricity). One of the significant advantages of this type of mission is that it strengthens and validates the foundational infrastructure of the United States Space Exploration Policy and is highly complementary to NASA's planned lunar sortie and outpost missions circa 2020. A human expedition to a NEO would not only underline the broad utility of the Orion CEV and Ares launch systems, but would also be the first human expedition to an interplanetary body beyond the Earth–Moon system. These deep space operations will present unique challenges not present in lunar missions for the onboard crew, spacecraft systems, and mission control team. Executing several piloted NEO missions will enable NASA to gain crucial deep space operational experience, which will be necessary prerequisites for the eventual human missions to Mars.Our NEO team will present and discuss the following:

• new mission trajectories and concepts;

• operational command and control considerations;

• expected science, operational, resource utilization, and impact mitigation returns; and

• continued exploration momentum and future Mars exploration benefits.

From Earth's orbit to the outer planets and beyond: Psychological issues in space

Current planning for the first interplanetary expedition to Mars envisions a crew of 6 or 7 people and a mission duration of around 2.5 years. However, this time frame is much less than that expected on expeditions to the outer solar system, where total mission durations of 10 years or more are likely. Although future technological breakthroughs in propulsion systems and space vehicle construction may speed up transit times, for now we must realistically consider the psychological impact of missions lasting for one or more decades.Available information largely deals with on-orbit missions. In research that involved Mir and ISS missions lasting up to 7 months, our group and others have studied the effects of psychological and interpersonal issues on crewmembers and on the crew-ground relationship. We also studied the positive effects of being in space. However, human expeditions to the outer planets and beyond will introduce a number of new psychological and interpersonal stressors that have not been experienced before. There will be unprecedented levels of isolation and monotony, real-time communication with the Earth will not be possible, the crew will have to work autonomously, there will be great dependence on computers and other technical resources located on board, and the Earth will become an insignificant dot in space or will even disappear from view entirely.Strategies for dealing with psychological issues involving missions to the outer solar system and beyond will be considered and discussed, including those related to new technologies being considered for interstellar missions, such as traveling at a significant fraction of the speed of light, putting crewmembers in suspended animation, or creating giant self-contained generation ships of colonists who will not return to Earth.     

High energy-density propulsion—reducing the risk to humans in planetary exploration

The potential benefits to humankind of space exploration are tremendous. Space is not only the final frontier but is also the next marketplace. The orbital space above Earth offers tremendous opportunities for both strategic assets and commercial development. The critical obstacle retarding the use of the space around the Earth is the lack of low cost access to orbit. Further out, the next giant leap for mankind will be the human exploration of Mars. Almost certainly within the next 30 years, a human crew will brave the isolation, the radiation, and the lack of gravity to walk on and explore the Red planet. Both of these missions will change the outlook and perspective of every human being on the planet. However, these missions are expensive and extremely difficult. Chemical propulsion has demonstrated an inability to achieve orbit cheaply and is a very high-risk option to accomplish the Mars mission. An alternative solution is to develop a high performance propulsion system. Nuclear propulsion has the potential to be such a system. The question will be whether humanity is willing to take on the challenge.     

Transforming solar system exploration: The origins of the Discovery Program, 1989–1993

The Discovery Program is a rarity in the history of NASA solar system exploration: a reform program that has survived and continued to be influential. This article examines its emergence between 1989 and 1993, largely as the result of the intervention of two people: Stamatios “Tom” Krimigis of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), and Wesley Huntress of NASA, who was Division Director of Solar System Exploration 1990–92 and the Associate Administrator for Space Science 1992–98. Krimigis drew on his leadership experience in the space physics community and his knowledge of its Explorer program to propose that it was possible to create new missions to the inner solar system for a fraction of the existing costs. He continued to push that idea for the next two years, but it took the influence of Huntress at NASA Headquarters to push it on to the agenda. Huntress explicitly decided to use APL to force change on the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the planetary science community. He succeeded in moving the JPL Mars Pathfinder and APL Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) mission proposals forward as the opening missions for Discovery. But it took Krimigis's political skill and access to Sen. Barbara Mikulski in 1993 to get the NEAR into the NASA budget, thereby likely ensuring that Discovery would not become another one-mission program.     

Roadmap to a human Mars mission

We propose a new roadmap for the preparation of the first human mission to Mars. This proposal is based on the work of ISECG and several recent recommendations on human Mars mission architectures. A table is proposed to compare the possible benefits of different preparatory missions. Particular attention is paid to the possibility of qualifying important systems thanks to a heavy Mars sample return mission. It is shown that this mission is mandatory for the qualification of Mars aerocapture at scale-1, EDL systems at scale 1 and Mars ascent. Moreover, it is a good opportunity to test many other systems, such as the heavy launcher and the transportation systems for the trips beyond LEO. These tests were not mentioned in the last ISECG report. This strategy is facilitated in the case of the simplified Mars mission scenarios that have recently been presented because it is suggested that relatively small vehicles with small crew sizes are used in order to optimize the payload mass fraction of the landing vehicles and to avoid the LEO assembly. An important finding of the study is that a human mission to the surface of the Moon is not required for the qualification of the systems of a human mission to Mars. Since affordability is a key criterion, two important missions are proposed in the roadmap. The first is a heavy Mars sample return mission and the second is a manned mission to a high Earth orbit or eventually to the vicinity of the Moon. It is shown that both missions are complementary and sufficient to qualify all the critical systems of the Mars mission.     

火星载人探测中辐射防护综述

火星探测是人类太空探索的重要组成部分,火星载人探测中航天员的辐射安全问题是人们最为关心的问题。文章扼要介绍了美国/俄罗斯火星载人探测技术的发展过程,重点阐述了探测中的辐射环境、辐射效应以及国外探测结果;在此基础上,对火星探测中的辐射剂量进行了预示,提出了辐射防护建议。     

Women''s place in space exploration

A Mars manned space mission would be characterized by long-lasting psycho-social stress for its human participants. Based on the results of our and other authors' experiments with small human groups under simulated space stress conditions, and bearing in mind historical evidence of the changing role of women in human society, the differences of feminine and masculine cognitive patterns should be taken into greater account. Participation of women in astronautics should be reconsidered from the point of view of the roles of women as members of a space ship crew, as members of a space control centre and in relation to the family life of male astronauts on long-term space missions.     

Social and cultural issues during Shuttle/Mir space missions.

A number of interpersonal issues relevant to manned space missions have been identified from the literature. These include crew tension, cohesion, leadership, language and cultural factors, and displacement. Ground-based studies by others and us have clarified some of the parameters of these issues and have indicated ways in which they could be studied during actual space missions. In this paper, we summarize some of our findings related to social and cultural issues from a NASA-funded study conducted during several Shuttle/Mir space missions. We used standardized mood and group climate measures that were completed on a weekly basis by American and Russian crew and mission control subjects who participated in these missions. Our results indicated that American subjects reported more dissatisfaction with their interpersonal environment than their Russian counterparts, especially American astronauts. Mission control personnel were more dysphoric than crewmembers, but both groups were significantly less dysphoric than other work groups on Earth. Countermeasures based on our findings are discussed which can be applied to future multicultural space missions.     

Comparative assessment of human–Mars-mission technologies and architectures

We compare a variety of mission scenarios to assess the strengths and weaknesses of options for Mars exploration. The mission design space is modeled along two dimensions: trajectory architectures and propulsion system technologies. We examine direct, semi-direct, stop-over, semi-cycler, and cycler architectures, and we include electric propulsion, nuclear thermal rockets, methane and oxygen production on Mars, Mars water excavation, aerocapture, and reusable propulsion systems in our technology assessment. The mission sensitivity to crew size, vehicle masses, and crew travel time is also examined. Many different combinations of technologies and architectures are applied to the same Mars mission to determine which combinations provide the greatest potential reduction in the injected mass to LEO. We approximate the technology readiness level of a mission to rank development risk, but omit development cost and time calculations in our assessment. It is found that Earth–Mars semi-cyclers and cyclers require the least injected mass to LEO of any architecture and that the discovery of accessible water on Mars has the most dramatic effect on the evolution of Mars exploration.     

Human missions to Mars: new psychological challenges and research issues

Human exploratory missions to Mars represent the most exciting future vision of human space flight. With respect to the distance to travel and mission duration, these missions will provide unique psychological challenges that do not compare to any other endeavor humans ever have attempted. The present paper presents outcomes of two recent projects sponsored by the European Space Agency--Humex and Reglisse--where these challenges and risks have been analyzed in some detail, and where concepts for future research have been developed. This presentation involves three steps. At first, it will be shown that our current psychological knowledge derived from orbital spaceflight and analogue environments is not sufficient to assess the specific risks of mission into outer space. Secondly, new psychological challenges of missions to Mars will be identified with respect to three different areas: (1) individual adaptation and performance, (2) crew interactions, and (3) concept and methods of psychological countermeasures. Finally, different options and issues of preparatory psychological research will be discussed.     

Some approaches to medical support for Martian expedition

Medical support in a Martian expedition will be within the scope of crew responsibilities and maximally autonomous. Requirements to the system of diagnostics in this mission include considerable use of means and methods of visualization of the main physiological parameters, telemedicine, broad usage of biochemical analyses (including "dry" chemistry), computerized collection, measurement, analysis and storage of medical information. The countermeasure system will be based on objective methods of crew fitness and working ability evaluation, individual selection of training regimens, and intensive use of computer controlled training. Implementation of the above principles implies modernization and refinement of the countermeasures currently used by space crews of long-term missions (LTM), and increases of the assortment of active and passive training devices, among them a short-arm centrifuge. The system of medical care with the functions of prevention, clinical diagnostics and timely treatment will be autonomous, too. The general requirements to medical care during the future mission are the following: availability of conditions and means for autonomous urgent and special medical aid and treatment of the most possible states and diseases, "a hospital", and assignment to the crew of one or two doctors. To ensure independence of medical support and medical care in an expedition to Mars an automated expert system needs to be designed and constructed to control the medical situation as a whole.     

Psychosocial interactions during ISS missions

Based on anecdotal reports from astronauts and cosmonauts, studies of space analog environments on Earth, and our previous research on the Mir Space Station, a number of psychosocial issues have been identified that can lead to problems during long-duration space expeditions. Several of these issues were studied during a series of missions to the International Space Station. Using a mood and group climate questionnaire that was completed weekly by crewmembers in space and personnel in mission control, we found no evidence to support the presence of predicted decrements in well-being during the second half or in any specific quarter of the missions. The results did support the predicted displacement of negative feelings to outside supervisors among both crew and ground subjects. There were several significant differences in mood and group perceptions between Americans and Russians and between crewmembers and mission control personnel. Crewmembers related cohesion to the support role of their leader, and mission control personnel related cohesion to both the task and support roles of their leader. These findings are discussed with reference to future space missions.     

利用气动减速的国外深空探测器热控设计特点分析

气动减速技术能在耗费较少燃料的情况下,使探测器顺利进入预定环绕轨道.面向气动减速技术的深空探测器迎风面需要承受较高的气动热负荷与气动力,使得迎风面热控材料的耐热与耐冲击能力成为探测器设计的关键.文章对国外相关应用实例进行了调研和综述,并在此基础上总结了此类深空探测器热控系统的设计特点,可为气动减速技术在我国深空探测任务...     

New trade tree for manned mars missions

Recent studies on human missions to Mars suggest revisiting the parameters that have the most important impact on the complexity, the initial mass in low Earth orbit, the risks and the development costs for the first journey to the red planet. In the last NASA reference mission, a trade tree is proposed.     

Piloted operations at a near-Earth object (NEO)

In late 2006, NASA's Constellation Program sponsored a study to examine the feasibility of sending a piloted Orion spacecraft to a near-Earth object. NEOs are asteroids or comets that have perihelion distances less than or equal to 1.3 astronomical units, and can have orbits that cross that of the Earth. Therefore, the most suitable targets for the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) are those NEOs in heliocentric orbits similar to Earth's (i.e. low inclination and low eccentricity). One of the significant advantages of this type of mission is that it strengthens and validates the foundational infrastructure of the United States Space Exploration Policy and is highly complementary to NASA's planned lunar sortie and outpost missions circa 2020. A human expedition to a NEO would not only underline the broad utility of the Orion CEV and Ares launch systems, but would also be the first human expedition to an interplanetary body beyond the Earth–Moon system. These deep space operations will present unique challenges not present in lunar missions for the onboard crew, spacecraft systems, and mission control team. Executing several piloted NEO missions will enable NASA to gain crucial deep space operational experience, which will be necessary prerequisites for the eventual human missions to Mars.Our NEO team will present and discuss the following:

• •new mission trajectories and concepts;
• •operational command and control considerations;
• •expected science, operational, resource utilization, and impact mitigation returns; and
• •continued exploration momentum and future Mars exploration benefits.

     

Astromedicine and astrolaw: Emerging issues for advanced missions beyond Earth orbit

It is generally agreed within the scientific community that provision of appropriate medical facilities and administration of quality health care to astronauts are of great importance. However, for the more complex and remote missions envisaged for the future, issues of liability, responsibility and damage relating to medical practice may take on a greater significance and will need to be addressed. The author briefly reviews potential issues which may arise in the context of medical emergencies, crew autonomy and environmentally altered physiological status which characterize some projected advanced space missions and argues that the law of outer space will need to be expanded to take account of them.     

Mission success regulations,their effect on ELV launch success and the applicability to regulating commercial human spaceflight

As the human spaceflight industry grows the agencies charged with regulating that industry meet significant challenges. An improvement in launch success would improve the safety for the crew and passengers of a commercial human spaceflight. With respect to ELV launches, NASA's regulations over civil launches are mission success oriented while commercial launches regulated by the FAA-AST, the agency that will also be charged with human spaceflight, takes a more public safety oriented stance. A comparison of the launch success between civil and commercial launches is used to inform the decision on whether or not mission success would be an appropriate regulatory stance for the FAA-AST. The results show that there is no significant difference in launch success between civil and commercial ELV launches. Because of this and because the industry is wary of over regulation, there is indication that a mission success oriented stance might not be appropriate for regulating commercial human spaceflight.