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(c)2001 American Institute
of
Aeronautics
&
Astronautics
or
Published with Permission
of
Author(s) and/or
Author(s)'
Sponsoring Organization.
Conference
and
Exhibit
on
International
Space
Station
Utilization
-
2001,
Cape
Canaveral,
FL,
Oct.
15-18,
2001
A01-42855
AIAA-2001-4905
CREWMEMBER
AND
CREW-GROUND INTERACTIONS DURING
INTERNATIONAL
SPACE STATION MISSIONS
Nick
Kanas,
M.D., Daniel
S.
Weiss, Ph.D., Charles
R.
Marmar, M.D.,
and
Ellen
M.
Grund, M.S.
University
of
California
and
Department
of
Veterans Affairs Medical Center,
San
Francisco,
California
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.
During future long-duration
space
missions
involving
the
International
Space
Station
or
expeditionary
flights
to
Mars
and
beyond,
international
crews 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. Anecdotal reports
from
previous
space missions
and
studies conducted
in
space analog environments
on
Earth1"13,
including
our own
ground
studies14"19,
have
isolated
a
number
of
important psychosocial
issues
that
may
negatively impact
on
space
crewmembers during future long-duration
space
missions.
These issues include tension,
cohesion, leadership role
(e.g.,
task-oriented
versus support-oriented),
and
language
and
cultural
differences.
The
crew-ground relationship also
is
important
since miscommunication between
crewmembers
in
space
and
operational
and
support
personnel
in
mission control
may
negatively
affect
work schedules
and
lead
to
inadequate
responses during emergencies.
At
times,
negative emotions
or
mistaken beliefs that
occur
as a
result
of
conflicts among
the
members
of
the
crew
may be
misdirected
or
transferred
to
people
on the
ground.
As a
result,
the
latter
are
perceived
as
being
unhelpful,
unsupportive,
or
even
hostile. This phenomenon
is
called
1
American
Institute
of
Aeronautics
and
Astronautics
Downloaded by CARLETON UNIVERSITY on November 3, 2015 | http://arc.aiaa.org | DOI: 10.2514/6.2001-4905
(c)2001
American
Institute
of
Aeronautics
&
Astronautics
or
Published
with
Permission
of
Author(s)
and/or
Author(s)'
Sponsoring
Organization.
displacement.
Behaviors
suggestive
of
displacement
have
been
reported
previously
in
space8'20"22
and in
space
simulation
studies
on
Earth4'5'7'13'16'23.
Although
displacement
may
preserve
some
measure
of
harmony
for the
crewmembers,
it
only
does
so at the
cost
of
smooth
communication
between
crew
and
ground.
During
long-duration
space
missions,
people
are
forced
to be
together
under
isolated
and
confined
conditions
for
long
periods
of
time.
Some
investigators
have
reported
that
people
participating
in
space
or in
space
analog
missions,
such
as
Antarctic
expeditions,
submarines,
and
hyperbaric
chambers,
may
experience
significant
psychological
and
interpersonal
difficulties
in the
second
half
of a
mission,
especially
in the
third
quarter10'14'23"26.
Another
time
model
incorporates
Rohrer's
three
sequential
phases,
which
are
characterized
by
initial
anxiety,
mid-mission
depression,
and
terminal
euphoria
27-29
Thus,
time
itself
may
play
a
role
on how
psychosocial
issues
impact
on
space
crews
and
other
isolated
and
confined
groups.
Our
Previous
Ground-Based
Work
Members
of our
research
team
have
explored
several
of the
above
psychosocial
issues
in
previous
space-related
work.
In a
retrospective
questionnaire
study
of 54
astronauts
and
cosmonauts
who had
flown
in
space17"19,
all
subjects
stated
that
having
a
common
language
during
multinational
space
missions
was
important.
On a
rating
scale
addressing
this
issue,
astronauts
scored
significantly
higher
than
cosmonauts
and
crewmembers
responsible
for
mission
operations
scored
significantly
higher
than
researchers.
American
and
Russian
respondents
attributed
greater
importance
to
speaking
the
same
dialect
than
"guest"
astronauts
from
other
countries
that
participated
in the
U.S.
program.
Factors
that
influenced
both
intra-crew
and
crew-ground
communications
were
identified,
and
support
from
loved
ones
on
Earth
was
seen
as
being
important
in
enhancing
work
performance.
In
a
space
simulation
project
in
which
three
male
Russian
physicians
were
secluded
in the
Mir
space
station
simulator
in
Moscow
for 135
days,
there
was
evidence
of
increasing
tension
and
crew
disintegration
over
time,
and the
quality
and
quantity
of
communication
varied
with
the
personnel
make-up
of the
different
outside
monitoring
teams14'15.
In
addition,
there
was
evidence
suggesting
that
there
was
less
tension
and
more
opportunity
for
self
discovery
during
the
seclusion
period
than
during
the
time
before
the
seclusion;
that
2nd
half
improvements
in
tension
and
total
mood
disturbance
may
have
resulted
from
a
mid-mission
resupply
event;
that
significant
declines
occurred
in
cohesion
during
the
last
3rd of the
seclusion;
and
that
there
was
displacement
of
tension
and
negative
emotions
to
the
outside
monitoring
personnel16.
Our
Previous
Shuttle/Mir
Study
We
have
just
completed
a
4'/2-year
on-orbit
study
funded
by
NASA
that
is a
direct
extension
of our Mir
space
station
simulation
project.
This
study
explored
psychosocial
issues
involving
tension,
cohesion,
leadership
role,
and
displacement
during
the
joint
Shuttle/Mir
Program.
After
signing
informed
consent,
the
final
study
sample
consisted
of 5
U.S.
astronauts,
8
Russian
cosmonauts,
and 42
U.S.
and 16
Russian
mission
control
personnel.
The
subjects
completed
a
study
questionnaire
that
assessed
their
mood
and
interpersonal
relationships.
The
questionnaire
consisted
of
items
from
three
well-
known
and
standardized
instruments:
the
Profile
of
Mood
States
(POMS)30,
the
Group
Environment
Scale
(GES)31,
and the
Work
Environment
Scale
(WES)32.
From
these
items,
subscales
were
derived
that
allowed
us to
test
our
hypotheses.
In
addition,
subjects
were
asked
to
record
and
evaluate
important
events
each
week
on
a
critical
incident
log.
Subjects
completed
the
study
measures
at
weekly
intervals
four
times
pre-mission,
during
the
mission,
and
twice
post-
mission.
The
results
have
been
published
in
papers^307
and
reviews38"39,
and the
main
findings
pertinent
to
this
proposal
will
be
summarized
below.
Using
mixed
model
regression
techniques
for
longitudinal
data,
strong
support
was
found
for
displacement,
which
was
operationally
defined
as
occurring
when
there
were
significantly
lower
levels
of
perceived
support
from
outside
supervisors
during
periods
of
higher
intra-group
tension
and
dysphoria.
For
crewmembers,
all six
measures
of
displacement
showed
the
predicted
negative
relationship,
and for
mission
control
personnel,
five
of the six
were
significant33.
Using
a
piecewise
linear
regression
analysis
for
longitudinal
data,
we did not
find
strong
support
for the
hypothesized
decrements
in the
2nd
half
of the
missions.
Only
crewmember
Leader
Support
showed
the
predicted
decrease
throughout
this
time
interval33.
For
American
American
Institute
of
Aeronautics
and
Astronautics
Downloaded by CARLETON UNIVERSITY on November 3, 2015 | http://arc.aiaa.org | DOI: 10.2514/6.2001-4905
(c)2001
American
Institute
of
Aeronautics
&
Astronautics
or
Published
with
Permission
of
Author(s)
and/or
Author(s)'
Sponsoring
Organization.
astronauts,
four
subscales
showed
a
novelty
effect
(characterized
by
high
scores
in the
first
few
weeks
which
then
dropped
during
the
remainder
of the
mission):
Task
Orientation,
Self
Discovery,
Cohesion,
and
Order
&
Organization^8.
For all of the 21
subscales
analyzed,
we
found
no
differences
in
mean
scores
between
the
four
quarters
of the
missions
or
between
the
scores
pre-mission,
during
the
mission,
or
post-missionj4'j8.
Using
a
two-way
ANOVA
to
analyze
country
and
crew/ground
effects,
we
found
that
American
subjects
were
less
satisfied
with
their
interpersonal
and
work
environments
than
their
Russian
counterparts:
they
scored
significantly
higher
on
measures
of
Work
Pressure
and
Vigor
(which
may
have
represented
a
hyperactive
response
to
work
stress),
and
lower
on
measures
of
Leader
Support,
Task
Orientation,
Self
Discovery,
Physical
Comfort,
and
Managerial
Control
(i.e.,
guidance
from
management).
Mission
control
subjects
scored
higher
than
crewmembers
on
four
measures
of
dysphoric
emotions.
In
terms
of
interaction
effects,
for
three
subscales
(Leader
Support,
Expressiveness,
and
Independence),
Russian
crewmembers
scored
higher
than
their
American
counterparts
and
Russian
mission
control
subjects
scored
lower
than
Americans.
In all
three
cases,
U.S.
astronauts
scored
the
lowest'5'06.
Although
cultural
effects
alone
may
have
explained
these