Volume for crew sleep areas Volume for food prep and meal Volume for privacy Access to/from hatch to support equipment transfer Access to stow suits Volume for umbilical management Volume MAV flight control area Volume for donning/doffing suits Accessibility of translation paths Volume of MAV for contingency ingress/egress Volume of MAV for contingency with incapacitated crew Volume for co-located or related operations Volume to limit cross-contamination Volume for the ability of crewmember to use the WCS during sleeping hours without disrupting others Volume to provide adequate range of motion for a crew of 4 during nominal unsuited operations Volume for a crewmember to exercise Volume of MAV habitat to have one crew exercising while others work Overall volume of MAV habitat for a crew of 4 Accessibility to the seats for a crew of 4 Volume for sample stowage

Long-duration space missions pose many challenges to the health of the crew and success of the overall mission. In addition to hazards of the space environment, such as radiation exposure and the effects of microgravity on the human body, poor interactions between crewmembers can result in tension, conflict, or degraded performance. Although scientists have learned a great deal about how to reduce the effects of physical hazards to the crew, few studies have examined ways to monitor the functioning of the crew during a long-duration mission in order to avoid breakdowns in crew performance. This research had two goals. First, we collected data on crew function and performance by administering a battery of behavioral and performance measures to a seven-person crew, comprised of five undergraduate students and two graduate students, during a 2-week mission to the Mars Desert Research Station in Winter 2013. Second, this setting provided a unique opportunity for human factors students to develop a research protocol and then collect data in a field setting. Each study addressed different ways to support crew psychological health in long duration spaceflight.The goals of this research were twofold. First, we sought to test several measures of crew function and performance at an Earth-based simulation of the Mars environment. The Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) is operated by the Mars Society and located at an isolated location in Utah. Each year, six-person crews spend between 2 to 4 weeks at the facility, which includes an enclosed habitat, a greenhouse, and allterrain vehicles, to simulate living and working on Mars. Crews are isolated from the outside world and communicate with offsite mission control personnel.In addition to evaluating the crew function measures, we also used this unique opportunity of spending 2 weeks at the MDRS as a learning experience. Each student on the crew was responsible for developing his or her own individual research project and then devising an experimental protocol for collecting data at this isolated location. In general, this research not only addressed a significant challenge for longduration space crews by evaluating measures to support and monitor crew functioning and performance for future missions, but human factors students were able to conduct their own study in a realistic simulation of life on Mars. BACKGROUND

NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) is an underwater spaceflight analog that allows a true mission-like operational environment and uses buoyancy effects and added weight to simulate different gravity levels. A mission was undertaken in 2016, NEEMO 21, at the Aquarius undersea research habitat. During the mission, the effects of varied operations concepts with representative communication latencies associated with Mars missions were studied. Six subjects were weighed out to simulate partial gravity and evaluated different operations concepts for integration and management of a simulated Earth-based science team (ST) who provided input and direction during exploration activities. Exploration traverses were planned in advance based on precursor data collected. Subjects completed science-related tasks including presampling surveys and marine-science-based sampling during saturation dives up to 4 hours in duration that simulated extravehicular activity (EVA) on Mars. A communication latency of 15 minutes in each direction between space and ground was simulated throughout the EVAs. Objective data included task completion times, total EVA time, crew idle time, translation time, ST assimilation time (defined as time available for the science team to discuss, to review and act upon data/imagery after they have been collected and transmitted to the ground). Subjective data included acceptability, simulation quality, capability assessment ratings, and comments. In addition, comments from both the crew and the ST were captured during the post-mission debrief. Here, we focus on the acceptability of the operations concepts studied and the capabilities most enhancing or enabling in the operations concept. The importance and challenges of designing EVA timelines to account for the length of the task, level of interaction with the ground that is required/desired, and communication latency, are discussed.

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