ISOPTWPO Today

NOVEMBER 201 5, NO. 22

ISOPTWPO Today

Special Edition on Mars Analog Mission

ISOPTWPO Today, November 2015, No.22

Cover Image Brian Shiro inside HI-SEAS(2013) Image Credit: — Brian Shiro

Biography Page Hubble Uncovers the Fading Cinders of Some of Our Galaxy’s Earliest Homesteaders Small section of Hubble’s view of the dense collection of stars crammed together in the galactic bulge. The region surveyed is part of the Sagittarius Window Eclipsing Extrasolar Planet Search (SWEEPS) field and is located 26,000 light-years away.

Image Credit: NASA/ESA/STScI/SWEEPS Science Team Back Cover Africa is front and center in this image of Earth taken by a NASA camera on the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite. The image, taken July 6 from a vantage point one million miles from Earth, was one of the first taken by NASA’s Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC).

Central Europe is toward the top of the image with the Sahara Desert to the south, showing the Nile River flowing to the Mediterranean Sea through Egypt. The photographic-quality color image was generated by combining three separate images of the entire Earth taken a few minutes apart. The camera takes a series of 10 images using different narrowband filters – from ultraviolet to near infrared – to produce a variety of science products.

The red, green and blue channel images are used in these Earth images.

The DSCOVR mission is a partnership between NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Air Force, with the primary objective to maintain the nation’s real-time solar wind monitoring capabilities, which are critical to the accuracy and lead time of space weather alerts and forecasts from NOAA. DSCOVR was launched in February to its planned orbit at the first Lagrange point or L1, about one million miles from Earth toward the sun. It’s from that unique vantage point that the EPIC instrument is acquiring images of the entire sunlit face of Earth. Data from EPIC will be used to measure ozone and aerosol levels in EarthŠs atmosphere, cloud height, vegetation properties and a variety of other features.

Image Credit: NASA

2015, International Space Agency (ISA) ISOPTWPO TODAY First release, November 2013

Editorial Dear Reader It is my pleasure to introduce the ISOPTWPO. ISOPTWPO(International Space Flight & Operations - Personnel Recruitment, Training, Welfare, Protocol Programs Office) is part of ISA, which support research on Human Space Flight and its complications.

The International Space Agency (ISA) was founded by Mr. Rick Dobson, Jr., a U.S. Navy Veteran, and established as a non-profit corporation for the purpose of advancing Man’s visionary quest to journey to other planets and the stars.

ISOPTWPO will research on NASA’S Human Research Roadmap. It will also research on long duration spaceflight and publish special issues on one year mission at ISS and twin study.

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Mr. Martin Cabaniss

Director Mr. Martin Cabaniss ISOPTWPO – International Space Agency(ISA) http: // www. international-space-agency. us/ Email:martin.cabaniss@international-space-agency.us

Editorial Dear Reader Hello, my name is Abhishek Kumar Sinha, and I am Assistant Director of the ISOPTWPO and editor of ISOPTWPO TODAY. Coinciding with the start of a new stage in International Space Agency’s history, ISOPTWPO TODAY returns with even greater momentum.

In articles covering ISOPTWPO research activities/findings , we have special features on NASA’S Human Research Roadmap, and the Special Edition on Mars Analog Mission.

I hope you will enjoy the ISOPTWPO TODAY. Mr. Abhishek Kumar Sinha

Assistant Director Mr. Abhishek Kumar Sinha ISOPTWPO – International Space Agency(ISA) http: // www. international-space-agency. us/ Email:abhishek.kumar.sinha@international-space-agency.us

IN THIS EDITION Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA)

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HERA represents an analog for simulation of isolation, confinement and remote conditions of mission exploration scenarios. HERA facility capabilities includes a network that allows electronic research data and voice to be exchanged between the crew and ground controllers located in Building 220. The research data can be securely accessed by remote investigators real-time or near real-time though the JSC Telescience Center. HERA has a surveillance video and audio system, flight-like timeline and procedure viewer to provide a space mission experience.

IN THIS EDITION Mars 500 "Mars-500" project includes a series of experiments simulating these or those aspects of the given flight. The main part is a series of the experiments on long-term isolation in conditions of the specially built ground-based experimental facility.

IN THIS EDITION Special Interview with Brian Shiro Brian is researcher at the University of Hawaii. His research focuses on geophysical surveys of terrestrial environments that are analogous to other planets.He work as a Geophysicist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Special Edition on Mars Analogous Mission

Special Interview with Brian Shiro

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1. Tell me about yourself and your research experience.

Hello. Thank you for the opportunity to share a bit about my experiences with your readers. My name is Brian Shiro, and I am a researcher at the University of Hawaii. My research focuses on geophysical surveys of terrestrial environments that are analogous to other planets. I am interested in learning how we can adapt techniques like seismic, electromagnetic, ground-penetrating radar, and other geophysical survey methods that work well on Earth to find resources and study the subsurface on the Moon or Mars. For example, I want to explore how future astronauts can find groundwater, permafrost, or subsurface caves to "live off the land" on other worlds.

When I’m not tromping in the field doing Mars analog geophysics projects, I work as a Geophysicist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Honolulu, Hawaii. It’s my job to monitor earthquakes and forecast tsunamis. It’s a rewarding position that allows me to apply science in an operational scenario that helps save lives. To get the job I spent about five years becoming an expert on subduction zone earthquakes on a number of expeditions operating seismic networks. Earthquakes can provide very useful information to teach us about the interior of the Earth.

2. What is an analog space environment and why are analog mission simulations important?

We happen to live on a planet with very diverse environments. Some of these places have present or past geological or biological conditions that make them similar to (i.e., analogous) to other planets. For example, the Atacama Desert in Chile and Dry Valleys of Antarctica feature cold, arid conditions similar to those on Mars. Life thrives in these extreme conditions, offering opportunities to study how life could exist on Mars. We can study these places right here on Earth and then extrapolate how our findings might apply to other destinations. This "ground truth" data presents an opportunity to inform our interpretation of data collected elsewhere.

In addition to answering fundamental scientific questions about other planets in our solar system, analog sites afford many operational benefits as well. Testing exploration procedures and equipment in a planetary analog setting allows us to discover problems, test solutions, design in the context of use, and ultimately learn how to integrate people and systems in realistic scenarios. The NASA underwater NEEMO missions are an example of an analog site optimized to exploring the effects of isolation and varying gravity conditions. Conducting such "dress rehearsal" missions helps us iterate our development of space technologies such as drills, habitats, and spacesuits. This in turn advances capabilities to operate surface missions on other worlds.

3. What is your role in the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) program on Mauna Loa Volcano, Hawaii?

Hawaii Space Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) is a NASA-funded research project run by the University of Hawaii. We have built a habitat to house six crewmembers on the slope of Mauna Loa volcano, Hawaii. It is at a high enough elevation that temperatures are fairly cold, and the lava flows covering the surface are fresh enough that there is almost no vegetation there. The basaltic terrain is similar to that found on the Moon and Mars, so it is a good place to test operational and geological processes.

The HI-SEAS research program is unique in that it is focused on human psycho-social aspects of long duration missions. When crews go to destinations like Mars they will be away for years without real-time communication to their family and friends back home. Under these conditions, they must learn to work as a team with their fellow crewmembers to make decisions on their own and achieve their mission goals. At HI-SEAS, we are interested in exploring issues surrounding crew selection, cohesion, teamwork, and performance. To date, we have run four missions of increasing length. The first two were four months, followed by an eight month and now a 12 month mission, which began in August 2015. NASA has awarded another grant that will cover at least three more missions after that.

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Special Edition on Mars Analogous Mission

I have been with the project since late 2012 when I advised on the initial site selection and characterization. My ongoing roles in the research program are threefold. First, I am the lead for recruiting and managing Mission Support. That is a team of about 40 volunteers located around the world who communicate with the HI-SEAS crew every day. They respond to questions from the crew, send them files, read reports, and generally make sure the crew’s needs are being met. Second, I also help with crew selection and training, including going on a National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) expedition in Wyoming with the crew semifinalists to help determine the final crew and training each of the crews in geologic field methods in Hawaii before the start of their missions.

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My other role in HI-SEAS is as the geology exploration lead. With a small team of geologists, I have developed a series of geological exploration tasks that we assign to the crew on a bi-weekly basis. They plan their extra-vehicular activities (EVAs) and carry out the mini research projects with minimal interaction from us.

These tasks get them outside working in their spacesuits on activities similar to those that astronauts would perform when exploring the Moon or Mars. This provides a workload and stressors that are similar to ones astronauts will experience on such surface missions. For example, they map volcanic flows and features in the area to discover its geologic history and what resources are nearby. We use their performance on these tasks as one measure of their overall team function and performance.

4. What are some of the challenges associated with HI-SEAS missions? (power consumption limit, communication delay, sleep loss, etc.)

To date, all NASA crewed space missions have operated under a very closely scripted model where Mission Control on the ground schedules and directs nearly everything the crews do in space. This works fine in low earth orbit, but the farther one goes, the larger the communications time lag becomes. Even with only a 1.3 second delay on the Moon, Apollo astronauts found real-time communications with Earth to be disorienting and frustrating. When astronauts go deeper into the solar system to Mars and beyond, they will have to contend with much longer communications delays. This necessitates a new operational mode whereby the crew is essentially autonomous in its decision-making.

At HI-SEAS, we are exploring how crews can operate with very little input from Mission Support (Note that we do not call it Mission Control.). We may tell the crew "what" do to do but not "how" to do it. Only they know the conditions at the site and only they are best suited to make the judgment calls on how to tackle the challenges in front of them.

This is challenging in many respects, but the biggest issue seems to be something called Crew-Ground Disconnect. This well-known phenomenon happens to almost every group cut off from its home for a long time.

At some point, the isolated group feels that their counterparts back home just "don’t get it", and an adversarial attitude can develop. NASA is interested in learning how to deal with this in such as way that crews maintain their composure and ability to do their jobs.

The HI-SEAS crews also face challenges with day-to-day life. They have to keep the habitat’s power, water, computer, and other systems running. When things break, they fix them, and they have to operate within finite consumable resources like water and food ingredients. Speaking of food, that is another unique element of HI-SEAS. The first mission focused on whether pre-prepared meals of crew-prepared meals were better for crew morale. When people push the frontier out to Mars, they will probably get bored eating the same foods over and over again, so having a range of ingredients available and recipes at hand, crewmembers can get creative with what they eat. The challenge lies in balancing the time it takes to prepare meals (and the psychological benefits that may bring) with the time one could spend on other higher priority mission-related tasks.

5. Tell me about your prior experience at the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS) on Devon Island, Canada.

The Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS) is one of two Mars analog habitats where crews can carry out simulated missions. FMARS was built by the Mars Society in 2000 on the rim of the Haughton impact crater on Devon Island, Canada. The polar desert environment of the world’s largest uninhabited island makes it quite similar to Mars. FMARS (and later MDRS) was conceived to help explore the operational aspects associated with a crew conducting a surface mission on Mars. It is compatible with Robert Zubrin’s "Mars Direct" mission

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Special Edition on Mars Analogous Mission

architecture, which he describes in detail in his book The Case for Mars. His later book Mars on Earth details the construction of FMARS and its initial few missions.

My experience at FMARS was as the Crew Geophysicist on the 12th mission to the remote Arctic outpost in the summer of 2009. I like to think of this project as my consolation prize for not being selected as a NASA astronaut that year. And what a prize it was! Everything about the 30-day expedition to the Arctic was an adventure. The logistics of getting all of our gear from the small town of Resolute Bay to Devon Island was an interesting challenge. We also had to train with shotguns and carry them in case of polar bear encounters. All of our water came from a stream, and we had to incinerate all of our waste. Interested readers can go to my website astronautforhire.com see my blog and video posts about daily life there. Here, I’ll just focus on the research.

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I carried out two research experiments at FMARS. The first was installing and operating the island’s first seismic station. We ran into technical problems but did manage to record one earthquake. Now with the NASA Insight mission slated to launch in 2016, there will be a real seismometer on Mars in the near future. My project helped explore how one day human crews may deploy such instrumentation.

My second experiment was more complex and involved a time-domain electromagnetic geophysical survey to look for groundwater near the FMARS habitat and the Haughton Crater rim. This effort involved the entire crew. We had to carry out long loops of wire and arrange them carefully over the rocky landscape. Then we hooked these up to a power source that could send currents into the ground and record the induced currents on the loops of wire. From this we, can measure conductivity changes in the subsurface, which corresponds with the presence of water. Obviously, finding groundwater will be a very important task for astronauts on Mars, so I enjoyed making a small contribution to testing methods we can use to find it.

6. Tell me about your prior experience at the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in Utah.

The next year in 2010, the Mars Society called upon me again for a simulated Mars mission. This time I served a Commander Mission 89 at the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in Utah. They have operated over 150 two-week missions at MDRS since 2001, providing numerous opportunities for a wide range of Mars researchers and enthusiasts to experience what life on Mars might be like. The sedimentary rocks and desert conditions at MDRS make it similar to many parts of Mars. My crew and I had a very productive mission carrying out biology, engineering, and geology projects. I enjoyed the leadership opportunity and taking what I had learned at FMARS and applying it in a new setting.

I led one research project at MDRS to study a buried paleochannel feature. The feature was one a river bed millions of years ago before it was buried in sediments. Mars has many dry river beds and rocks that indicate aqueous alteration. For example, the Opportunity rover found hematite spherules nicknamed "blueberries" at Meridiani Planum on Mars, and similar blueberries exist at the MDRS site too. A previous MDRS crew studied the buried paleochannel with ground-penetrating radar, and my crew complemented their work with a seismic refraction survey to image the feature.

Our experiment involved laying out a line of small seismometers called geophones and then hitting a heavy iron plate with a sledgehammer to send vibrations into the ground. These vibrations bounce off subsurface layers and return back to the geophones which measure their signals. From this, we can study the layering in the subsurface. Apollo astronauts did this on Mars to study the lunar subsurface, and one day astronauts on Mars may do the same. It is one way they may find important resources like aquifers.

MDRS and FMARS follow a very similar blueprint in terms of their architectural design and function.

Like HI-SEAS missions, missions at these two analog habitats also rely upon a network of Mission Support volunteers to communicate with and assist the crews during their missions. We took some of the things that work at these locations and improved upon them for the design of HI-SEAS, which is higher in fidelity in some ways. However, each of these habitats, as well as others such as HERA and NEEMO, offers valuable opportunities for researchers to advance exploration scenarios that we may use one day on another world.

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Special Edition on Mars Analogous Mission

Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA) The Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA) plans for campaigns of incremental duration began in 2014 with four 7-day missions. A campaign is defined as one integrated protocol with one primary mission scenario consisting of multiple missions in order to meet study subject requirements. Studies designed to utilize the capabilities of HERA described in this document are integrated with other investigations on a non-interference basis and run together as one integrated campaign.

Planned mission durations may range from 7 days up to 60 days. The HERA planning schedule currently anticipates 4 missions per year (one per quarter) of 14-day duration, in 2015 and increasing to 30-day duration tests in 2016 and eventually to 60-day duration. This tentative schedule is subject to change.

HERA Features The HERA is a two-story, four-port habitat unit residing in Building 220 at NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC). It is cylindrical with a vertical axis, and connects to a simulated airlock and hygiene module (Figure 1). The total space comprises 148.1 m3 , distributed as follows: core (56.0 m3 ), loft (69.9 m3 ), airlock (8.6 m3 ) and hygiene module (14.1 m3 ) (Figures 2 and 3).

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HERA facility capabilities includes a network that allows electronic research data and voice to be exchanged between the crew and ground controllers located in Building 220. The research data can be securely accessed by remote investigators real-time or near real-time though the JSC Telescience Center. HERA has a surveillance video and audio system, flight-like timeline and procedure viewer to provide a space mission experience.

Currently, the HERA represents an analog for simulation of isolation, confinement and remote conditions of mission exploration scenarios. Studies suitable for this analog may include, but are not limited to behavioral health and performance assessments, communication and autonomy studies, human factors evaluations and exploration medical capabilities assessments and operations.

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Special Edition on Mars Analogous Mission

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Special Edition on Mars Analogous Mission HERA STANDARDIZED CONDITIONS • Duration: 14, 30 and 60 days specific to science requirements.

Note: this solicitation is for a 30 day mission.

• Room Temperature: 72◦ F. (+/- 5 degrees).

• Light/Dark Cycle: Lights on 0700, lights out 2300, 7 days per week, no napping is permitted.

• Monitoring of study operations 24 hours a day.

HERA DIETARY CONDITIONS Participating subjects will be provided a minimum of 3 meals each day. Feasibility of studies with specific dietary needs will be assessed on a per study basis.

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CAMPAIGN CHARACTERISTICS AND STUDY REQUIREMENTS A HERA Campaign is defined as one integrated protocol with one primary mission scenario. An integrated protocol consists of a number of individual investigator studies that can be combined on a non-interference basis.

Each campaign is expected to consist of 4 to 8 missions, providing a total of 16 to 32 subjects for each study.

Power analyses for each study will determine the number of missions needed to achieve the required study sample size.

Each HERA mission will consist of: Access to the subjects for mission activities: • Up to five days of pre-mission activities (i.e. baseline data collection (BDC), training, informed consent), final duration will be dependent on research requirements.

• In phase (confinement) for 14, 30 and 60 days depending on campaign requirements.

Note: this solicitation is for a 30 day mission.

• Up to three days of post mission activities (i.e. BDC, debriefing), final duration will be dependent on research requirements.

To support the isolation requirement, no access to email, phone calls or the internet will be allowed, family conferences are scheduled. FAP personnel will send personal messages along with news in periodic uplinks (exception for family emergencies which require intervention) consistent with simulating the space flight condition.

A limited mission control center will be located with Building 220 to support HERA operations. The extent of investigator support during the testing will be determined in each case.

SUBJECTS REQUIREMENTS • Four subjects per mission.

• Single or mixed gender, aiming at 50/50 male: female ratio for each test unless science requirements are different.

• Age 26 to 55. Other age groups can be accommodated if required by the study.

• Height limited to 6’2” maximum.

• Technical skills demonstrated through professional experience. Advanced degree (e.g. M.S., M.B.A. degree) or equivalent years of experience.

• Must have demonstrated motivation and work ethic similar to the "Astronaut stereotype".

• Below are some examples of astronaut selection criteria that may help to guide subject selection for HERA campaigns:

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Special Edition on Mars Analogous Mission – The requirements for Astronaut Candidates are a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution in engineering, biological science, physical science, or mathematics. Quality of academic preparation is important.

– An advanced degree is desirable and may be substituted for experience as follows: master’s degree = 1 year of experience – Doctoral degree = 3 years of experience – Teaching experience, including experience at the K - 12 levels, is considered to be qualifying experience for the Astronaut Candidate position; therefore, educators are encouraged to apply.

– Additional requirements include the ability to pass the NASA long-duration space flight physical, which includes the following specific requirements: Distant and near visual acuity must be correctable to 20/20 in each eye, and blood pressure not to exceed 140/90 measured in a sitting position.

SUBJECT DAILY AND WEEKLY WORK REQUIREMENTS The operational plan uses the ISS Program nominal 24-hour work day structured as a guideline. Below is the HERA mission plan: • Subjects awake at 0700 and are off duty at 2300 with one shift operation for all subjects.

• Sleep period (8.0 hours).

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• Post-sleep period, includes morning meal (1.5 hours).

• Daily planning conferences, medical conferences, work preparation, and plan familiarization (2.0 hours).

• Work, consisting of scheduled research tasks and HERA operations tasks, i.e. HERA maintenance, flight simulator for an asteroid based rendezvous mission, public affairs office, education outreach, etc. (6.5-8.0 hours).

• Midday meal (1 hour).

• Exercise period (1.25-2.5 hours, includes time for setup, cardiovascular/resistive exercise, stowage, hygiene (cool down and cleanup)).

• Pre-sleep period, includes evening meal (2.0 hours).

• A nominal 7 day work/rest cycle will consist of 5.5 days available for working planned utilization and nonutilization activities and 1.5 consecutive off-duty days. Housekeeping and 1.0 hour of scheduled work on the weekends is included in the 5.5 working days.

– Rationale: The crew week should align as closely as possible to the typical ground work week. Nominal scheduling of consecutive days off during a 7 day week for ISS crews is a behavioral health and medical countermeasure necessary for maintaining individual health and performance as well as maintaining performance and effective functioning of the entire crew as a unit. In a nominal 7-day week the crew works 5 days and the 6th day is a half duty day for housekeeping and 1 hour of scheduled work. The 7th day is a full off duty day. For planning purposes, the one hour of scheduled work may be planned across the 6th and 7th day.

HERA SUBJECT RECRUITMENT AND SCREENING The NASA JSC TSS provides advertising, recruiting and health screening for subject candidates. Once subjects pass the health requirements of the TSS, they will be provided to FAP to coordinate any additional screening required by investigator studies. Only subjects who pass all screening criteria will be considered for enrollment in the campaign.

HERA Campaign 1 HERA Campaign 1 consists of four one-week missions to be implemented per the following schedule: Mission 1 February 27 - March 5, 2014; Mission 2 April 24 - 30, 2014; Mission 3 June 19 - 25, 2014; and Mission 4 between September 5 - 11, 2014. During each of these missions, up to 13 investigations were conducted.

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Special Edition on Mars Analogous Mission Experiments on this Mission AD ASTRA: Automated Detection of Attitudes and States through Transaction Recordings Analysis Long-duration missions present unique challenges to the behavioral health of astronauts. Factors such as lack of team coherence, workload, social monotony, access to family and psychosocial support, and interpersonal and cultural differences can affect both crew welfare and task performance. Metrics and methods for assessing these factors are difficult to obtain because some are inherently qualitative, while others may not be amendable to self-report. Since these factors are affected, even largely the product of, interpersonal communication, it is not surprising that interpersonal communications are the primary key to them. There are already rich sources of interpersonal communication data–both intra-crew and between flight crew and ground– which are created and archived during International Space Station (ISS) missions.

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Recent research suggests that verbal and non-verbal communications can be automatically processed in a variety of ways to provide insight into team cohesion, affective and cognitive states, and team performance. The investigators propose to leverage prior work of their own and of others in cultural and socio-linguistic theory to develop standardized, non-intrusive, and largely automated methods for data collection and knowledge extraction about factors salient to crew psychosocial well-being from existing communications data streams.

This study will propose candidate assessment techniques for relevant team coherence and performance factors develop them for ISS operations and then test, tune and validate them in a series of experiments involving first ground-based archival data but culminating in an ISS Flight Definition study. The assessment technologies created will enable the identification and tracking of serious threats to individual and group behavioral health and task performance, providing empirical data with which countermeasures and training and crew selection approaches can be systematically created.

The overall objective of this study is to identify suitable combinations of processing techniques (which the investigators will call "Non-Intrusive Psycho-Social State Assessors" or NIPSSAs) and data streams for assessing psycho-social states of interest to NASA. The first year of the study was targeted to assess available techniques, likely data streams, and desired state assessments to identify promising combinations and then to prototype and assess such techniques on historical (i.e., previously captured) data representative of NASA missions and operational contexts.

Approach Investigators made use of the participants being recruited and run in the NASA’s Human Exploration Research Analog HERA study, a number limited to 24 participants, which includes 16 crew and 8 mission control staff members. All participants were asked to complete the same surveys and journal entries. Due to this limited sample size, investigators focused on single subjects’ analysis and attempted to increase statistical power via indepth analysis of behavioral changes and repeated measures over a longer period of time (daily journal entries and communications data). This allowed them to calculate variability for each subject separately (instead of the pool of subjects or over groups). Thus, with a small sample investigators are more likely to know more about individual scores and their impact on psychosocial states of interest, changes over time as well as identifying environmental factors influencing these scores.

The primary investigation involved comparing the assessed levels of various psycho- and psycho-social states from the automated language processing algorithms applied to participant journal entries and written communication to the rated levels of the same states on survey data collected both from the participants themselves and those staff members who are close to them.

1. Informed consent forms were provided along with general descriptions of the study procedures and objectives. Descriptions of data to be collected and privacy approaches were provided. Consent was obtained before any other steps below.

2. Initial Personality Trait Testing- Initial personality inventory was performed as a part of intake for the study for all participants, both crew and mission control. Investigators used the STAI Self Evaluation (in addition to reviewing personality data collected as a part of the overall study intake and selection screening).

3. Initial Training- Initial training to describe the aims and procedures for the study, provide training in the process for filling out journal entries and completing surveys and answering any questions or concerns the participant.

4. Journal Entries and Communications data- Following initial training participants were requested to write in their journals daily. Journal entries were requested prior to crew entry to the habitat (approximately 5

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Special Edition on Mars Analogous Mission days), continued through the study, and continued through the post-study period (approximately 5 days per participant). Journal data was collected via an online, password protected website and thus was available to experimenters immediately after submission. The broader HI-SEAS study will be emulating the planetary portion of a Mars mission and will include simulated, time-delayed crew-ground communications using a newsgroup forum format (Google Groups). Analysis on journal and communication data will be conducted on an ongoing basis as it is collected (approximately weekly).

5. Surveys- Participants, both crew and mission control, were asked to complete the survey daily. This survey consists of two parts. The first is a series of descriptive terms pertinent to moods, emotions, physical states, and energy levels. Participants were asked to rate each term as to how much or little it describes their current state. This set of descriptors contains those in the PANAS survey instrument. The second part is a short list of questions with scalar responses designed to specifically reflect the attributes investigators believe they will be able to infer automatically from their writings and communication. Survey data was collected via an online, password protected website and thus was available to experimenters immediately after submission. Analysis of data was conducted on an ongoing basis as it was collected (approximately weekly).

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6. Correlational studies comparing the results of the automated language processing algorithms on participants’ journal entries, communications data, and the survey rating data provided by participants was conducted at least bi-weekly. Adjustments to the automated processing algorithms were made to improve data fit, but this did not affect the procedures for either participants or staff and associates.

7. Outgoing Debrief- After the experiment, investigators conducted an approximately one hour interview individually with each participant to ask them about their experiences in the study as well as about specific high and low points in their assessed data tracks.

Results This experiment is currently in progress. Preliminary results are available below.Significant accomplishments from the bed rest analog include: 1. Continued work in the bed rest analog allowed investigators to validate several of their general techniques against survey data. These include: a. Significant correlations between their scoring of use of positive and negative emotional terms and the corresponding survey scores on the PANAS (Positive and Negative Affect Schedule) instrument. b. Significant correlations between the use of past, present, and future verb tenses in journal entries and a self-report of focus on past, present, and future. c. Significant positive correlation between mentions of a category of terms pertinent to the bed rest study in journal entries and ratings of attitude toward the survey. d. Significant negative correlation of use of terms in a category corresponding to physical state and the survey ratings of the participant’s own physical state.

2. Investigators developed novel techniques and extensions for assessing the "drivers" of attitude on an individual by combining word category use with sentiment analysis. This let investigators draw conclusions, for example, that one individual’s use of food terms in journal entries with negative affect correlates with his use of body, physical, and health terms-which they interpret as likely indicating concerns about what the hospital diet is doing to his physique-while another uses food terms with positive affect in entries where he also uses past tense verbs and terms for social activities and family-which they interpret as likely indicating that he associates food with nostalgia for social gatherings and events. This type of insight could greatly help ground support in understanding how a psychological intervention or incentive might be interpreted by various crewmembers.

3. Investigators identified an overall "positivity metric" with a potential "red line" threshold for adverse positivity expressions in journal entries, which suggests that a ratio of positive to negative utterances around 3:1 is indicative of a "thriving" individual or relationship. While this work is controversial, even discredited to some extent, and should be treated with caution.

4. In addition to the planned analyses, investigators illustrated the speed and flexibility of applying their techniques (as well as the richness of journal entries as opposed to survey questions) by performing multiple auxiliary analyses which had not been anticipated in their initial experimental plan-such as on the psychological effects of exercise and testosterone treatments. These analyses were typically done in a 1-3 days of person time given their prior dataset.

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In addition to these validation analyses, investigators were able to draw some substantive conclusions about the psychological states and the use of journals in long-duration confinement conditions (for which the bed rest conditions serve as an analog). These include: 1. Although there are large individual differences, including some which countered this trend, word count of journal entries declines significantly over time.

2. Within that general trend, the proportional use of positive emotion terms, affect terms in general, perceptual terms (indicative of things being noticed or sensed in the environment), and cognitive mechanism terms (expressions of thought and reasoning) all decline significantly over time. Future tense verb use, though, increased significantly over time.

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3. The analysis of positivity ratios described above showed that these ratios were correlated with trait anxiety surveys in the study and were also correlated positively with the use of terms in achievement and work categories in journal entries, and negatively correlated with use of terms indicative of health, physical state, anxiety, anger, frustration, and discouragement. Furthermore, the one subject whose ratio was below that 3:1 threshold in the sample was one who dropped out of the study.

4. Analysis of the journals of exercisers vs. non-exercisers vs. exercisers also treated with testosterone showed: a. The overall affect in journal entries (as measured by LSA valence) is higher for exercisers (in both groups) than non-exercisers. Exercisers rate (on surveys) their physical state as higher and they use physical and body terms more frequently, and with higher valence. Their valence for terms having to do with exercise is also higher. b. When investigators discriminated between exercisers and exercisers with testosterone, however, they saw that exercise with or without testosterone clearly has substantial benefits on attitude. There was, however, no obvious added benefit from testosterone use on these fronts, over exercise alone. On the other hand, exercisers who did not have testosterone gave more positive survey responses (as opposed to our automated inferences from their journals) on explicit questions about several attitudes or behaviors than did exercisers with testosterone (who did not differ significantly from controls). Of somewhat more concern, testosterone subjects had twice the level of anxiety term usages in their journal entries as did either exercisers without testosterone or controls.

5. Investigators did a comparative analysis between their automated assessment of subject journals and subjects’ own survey responses vs. the survey assessments of the subject by a nurse who interacted with him throughout the day. These results showed that their automated analyses did a much better job at predicting subjects’ survey responses than did the nurses’ survey answers.

While investigators have completed the bed rest study of subject journals during this program year, they have also been participating in two additional studies the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HISEAS) and the Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA) habitat analogs. In neither case are analyses from these studies complete, but investigators have been able to develop and extend their techniques in methodological ways to enable data capture. These include: 1. In the HI-SEAS study, they have collected four months of both journal and interactive email-like exchanges between crew and ground. They developed extended survey techniques to obtain data to validate analyses of inter-crew and crew-ground "familiarity" or social distance, the degree of routine vs. unusualness of a day, etc. They have also now adapted our interpersonal communications analysis techniques for power and team comfort/routine to be able to handle the data from the Base Station software used by the HISEAS team to collect and sequence crew-ground communications. They have now completed an initial run of our analytic software on both journal and crew-ground interactions, but have not yet completed analysis of the results.

2. Investigators extended those survey and data collection techniques for use in the data and communications environment of the week long studies in the HERA analog. More extensively, they researched, worked with HERA facility personnel, tested, developed, and eventually deployed an approach to capturing spoken interactions between crew and from crew to ground in the analog. This approach has now been used in the first four HERA missions.

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Special Edition on Mars Analogous Mission 3. Investigators also developed techniques for transcribing the captured audio from HERA missions in a cost-effective fashion. This represents a substantial effort in the past six months as they have explored automated, semi-automated, and human transcription setups, then consulted with and evaluated multiple transcription services, and ultimately identified a specific service provider and developed a process for selecting portions of the ≈40,000 minutes of audio recording produced per HERA mission which were both needed by us and the other researchers in the HERA studies, and then transcribed, formatted, and shipped those portions.

The results achieved during this program year now demonstrate both the viability and the validity of one class of non-intrusive psycho-social state detectors to streamline, speed and in some cases, enable, the collection of data to effectively monitor and measure team and individual health and performance fluctuations during autonomous, long-duration exploration missions.

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For journal data, investigators have been successful at applying NIPSSA techniques to a variety of "live" analog settings and have shown that they correlate with traditional survey measures. They have also shown that such data is far more flexible and rich than traditional survey measures-enabling rapid, later analysis for questions not articulated or of interest during initial study development.

Finally, somewhat beyond initial expectations, they are supplying data relevant to retiring BHP gaps using these NIPSSA techniques. They have designed techniques and are collecting and analyzing data from additional analog studies where they are collecting interpersonal task communications data in text and speech to enable further detailed analyses of team dynamics using similar and alternate NIPSSA techniques.

Composing and Developing Resilient, Adaptive, and Self-Sustaining Teams for Long Duration Space Exploration In this study, investigators seek to better understand what characteristics of individuals and teams are necessary for successful long-duration space exploration, as well as how teams can best cope with highly autonomous conditions over long periods of time. In particular, they examine optimal team composition for long-duration space flight as well as countermeasures to develop and maintain team resilience under isolated and confined conditions. Namely, they investigate conditions of autonomy and leadership as well as the utility of team debriefing in maintaining resilience under stressful conditions. By measuring the team composition variables and matching them to specific roles within a controlled environment, they will be able to determine what characteristics of individuals and teams are necessary for successful long-duration space exploration. Additionally, the use of countermeasures during the task will help them understand how to develop and maintain teamwork and team resiliency under these conditions. Therefore, the purpose of this laboratory study is two-fold: the investigators aim to examine team composition variables as well as countermeasures that can aid in the improvement of long-duration space exploration.

Approcah Investigators are using an experimental methodology to examine different team composition variables as well as team interventions in long-duration space exploration. Prior to coming to the in-person experimental session, participants will complete a set of measures assessing individual differences variables that are theoretically presumed to be important to individual task work and teamwork. The online portion of this study (Part I) will take less than 30 minutes. Participants will be randomly assigned to roles (i.e., helm, weapons, engineering) within the simulation. Furthermore, countermeasures such as debriefing and manipulating the formal role of mission control will be part of the task to understand how to develop and maintain teamwork under these conditions.

This will allow investigators to determine what characteristics of individuals, teams, and interventions are necessary for successful long-duration space exploration.

The laboratory portion (Part II) of this experimental study will consist of three performance episodes (i.e., phases) in which the participants will work together to meet objectives in a space flight simulation. The Part II study design is a 2 (group-control governance: leader versus information source) x 2 (debriefing: yes versus no) between-subjects factorial design with two environmental jolts (i.e., unexpected events that stress the team) in Phases II and III as the within-subject manipulation. In other words, participants will be told that the confederate that is part of mission control will either be their leader (actively engaged in directing the actions and performance of action team), or the confederate will serve as a source of information as needed so there is no assigned leader for the team. The second between-subjects manipulation consists of a structured debriefing strategy, in which a computerized tool assists the team in discussing points of disagreement or performance errors. Lastly, all teams will have environmental jolts during Phases II and III of the task (within subjects manip-

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Special Edition on Mars Analogous Mission ulation). These unexpected events (e.g., changes to mission, equipment malfunctions, emergencies) will require teams to deal with an unexpected scenario and adapt accordingly.

HERA NASA’s Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA) facility participants will be composed of four 4-person teams, in a crossover design. All teams will use the structured debriefing tool. Investigators are employing a longitudinal, correlational design.

Results This experiment is in progress. Preliminary results are available below.

Group for Organizational Effectiveness, Inc. (gOE) has integrated and synthesized relevant research on team composition and developed an understanding of the requirements of a Long Duration Space Exploration (LDSE) mission. As a result, investigators view composition as a co-variate, resilience as a key measure, debriefing as a countermeasure. They also recognize the potential importance of unobvious measurement. The initial work established the basis for the Year 3 empirical research studies.

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Proposed tasks for Year 3 included: 1) Choose/develop targeted diagnostic and criterion measures for use in the ground-based research, and 2) Test the team composition variables, team diagnostics, and/or targeted countermeasure with a ground-based sample.

During Year 3 investigators made progress on the proposed tasks. They finalized diagnostic and criterion measures for our ground-based research and they gathered empirical data from three research environments, including a lab study with students, an analog study in a confined environment with teams of adults during a 7-day mission, and a NEEMO undersea analog study conducted with astronauts.

More specifically, gOE developed measures to inform and test team composition, team development, and team resilience. Investigators finalized a set of team self-report measures including the development of new measures of team resilience and living preferences; they established and developed team self-sustaining debriefs as a target countermeasure; and made progress on the establishment of several unobtrusive measures of team dynamics.

In Year 3, investigators completed gathering data from their lab study at the University of Central Florida (UCF) using college students as subjects. They also initiated two new studies with ground-based samples at both the HERA and NEEMO analog environments. In these three studies they are examining team composition as well as countermeasures to develop and maintain team resilience under isolated and confined conditions.

They developed mission specific team debrief content for each environment and populated the DebriefNow tool with that content. They gathered and are currently analyzing data on the debriefing countermeasure from the lab, HERA, and NEEMO samples.

During Year 4, investigators made progress on the proposed tasks. They analyzed data gathered in a lab setting.

They also gathered additional data in two analog settings: a) at HERA, a confined environment with teams of adults performing a 7-day or 14- day mission, and b) with a second team of astronauts during a NASA NEEMO undersea training mission.

More specifically, they gathered a set of team measures, including new measures of team resilience and living preferences; and tested team self-sustaining debriefs as a target countermeasure. Preliminary analyses suggest that the debriefing countermeasure has a positive effect on team resilience and performance and is viewed positively by team members.

Development of an Objective Behavioral Assay of Cohesion to Enhance Composition, Task Performance, and Psychosocial Adaptation in Long-Term Work Groups (Work_Groups) This purpose of this project is to develop and validate a conceptual and methodological approach with an accompanying software tool, currently known in its current prototype form as the "Team Performance Task" or "Price of Cooperation" (TPT/PoC), for eventual application in the selection, composition, and cohesion monitoring processes of long-duration space exploration crews and other high-performance teams. In the first arm of the study, the investigators will assess the potential contributions of personality and gender on voluntary cooperative propensity using the TPT/PoC. To accomplish this, three-person groups with varying combinations of gender and personality will be assessed using the TPT/PoC. The second arm of the study will determine which aspects of task cohesion, social cohesion, and biopsychosocial adaptation are predicted by baseline TPT/PoC profiles and if/how these profiles interact with crew composition factors over time.

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Approach Ground For this study, three-person groups will be repeatedly run through three to four hour Planetary Exploration Simulation (PES) missions, a computer-based experimental platform for modeling interdependent space exploration activities in small groups, with TPT/PoC probe assessments embedded throughout. Crews will complete weekly PES missions for approximately three to six months to establish the group’s baseline and achieve task and social cohesion. The study will culminate in two 12-hour "challenge" sessions (one of which will be overnight) involving extended PES missions and TPT/PoC assessments, with standard three to four hour "recovery" missions before and after, the purpose of which is to challenge the Crews’ performance capacity and psychosocial integrity (and subsequent ability to recover) via heavy workload and circadian stress. A parallel aim concurrent with the laboratory research is development of next-generation TPT/PoC software with enhanced human factors design, network connectivity, and data management capabilities. For Experiment 1 (short-term TPT/PoC study), a minimum sample size of 5 three-person groups (15 individuals) for each of the 16 combinations of factors yields a total sample of N = 240 participants. For Experiment 2 (long-term PES study), a minimum sample size of 10 three-person crews (30 individuals) for each of the four combinations of factors yields a total sample of N = 120 participants.

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HERA Participants for the Analog study conducted at HERA will be recruited and selected by NASA HRP officials from broad regional and/or national recruitment campaigns.

Results This study is currently in progress.

Dose Tracker Application for Monitoring Crew Medication Usage, Symptoms, and Adverse Effects during Missions (Dose_Tracker)

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During space flight, the body undergoes a number of physiological changes that are expected to result in altered interactions with administered medications, but it is not yet known if, or to what extent, these actually occur. The potential for therapeutically relevant alteration in either pharmacokinetics (how the body handles administered medications) or pharmacodynamics (how administered medications act upon the body) has long been a concern. This observational epidemiological study is a proactive step toward addressing this issue via regular direct questioning of crewmember volunteers, a model that the Johnson Space Center (JSC) Nutritional Biochemistry Discipline has proven to be both feasible and useful.

Specific Aims: 1. To develop an iOS application (app) for the collection of medication usage data from crewmember participants during their missions.

2. To employ the application to collect in-flight medication usage data to elucidate whether a) data suggest in-flight pharmacokinetic changes (alterations in how the body absorbs, distributes, metabolizes or excretes a medication), b) data suggest in-flight pharmacodynamic changes (alterations in how the medication interacts with target molecules and biochemical pathways), or c) unusual side effects occur during flight (frequency or quality).

3. To use the application with the same individuals pre-flight to collect ground medication usage data as a basis for comparing medication usage and effects in the same individuals.

4. To acquire sufficient in-flight medication usage data to provide the necessary variance and effect-size information required to properly power future studies when they are needed.

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Special Edition on Mars Analogous Mission Measurement Approach Research-oriented medication usage data will be self reported by subjects for the entirety of their ISS missions.

Ground data for each subject will be collected for a period of time that roughly matches the duration of their ISS mission, during a convenient pre-flight time period.

An iOS app was develop to enable crewmember subjects to record their own medication usage information as simply and efficiently as possible.

Reason for use of the ISS This study requires use of the ISS because no ground analog has been validated as appropriate for pharmacology experiments.

Test/Session Descriptions The Dose Tracker Application will be used to permit fast and efficient collection of data regarding crewmembers’ medication use on a near realtime basis, eliminating the current problems associated with recall over periods of weeks. Specific questions regarding medication use (somewhat different from the questions that physicians ask regarding patient health) will be asked of each participating crewmember.

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The data collection process will be streamlined by using a flexibly programmed computerized survey application that leverages the limited medication choices aboard, the doses available, typical dosing frequency, and side effects associated with each medication to provide an individualized short questionnaire for each medication use by the crewmember.

Once you log in, a question will appear for that week asking you if you have taken any medications for that week. If you haven’t, choose "no" and the questionnaire will end. If "yes," simply proceed to fill out the questions that will follow.

Expected results Previous studies have indicated that crewmembers’ use of medications on short-duration spaceflight missions is roughly similar to what is seen for healthy individuals in adult ambulatory medicine. Auhtor expect this study to show if the same is true for long-duration missions. This information will be operationally useful for mission planning (what medications to provide, and in what quantities). This study may also serve to highlight topic areas that require attention, by possibly indicating medications that are not as effective as expected, or those will unusual side effects during missions.

Effects of Long-Duration Microgravity on Fine Motor Skills: 1-year ISS Investigation (Fine Motor) Fine motor skills will be critical during long-duration space missions, particularly those skills needed to interact with technologies required in next-generation space vehicles, spacesuits, and habitats. They will be necessary for performing tasks in transit or on a planetary surface, such as information access, just-in-time training, subsystem maintenance, and medical treatment. No studies have been completed in long-duration microgravity to investigate the type of functional fine motor performance required to interact with advanced technologies (e.g., touch technologies, gesture interfaces). There has also not been a complete, systematic study of fine motor performance to include different phases of microgravity adaptation, long-term microgravity, and the sensorimotor recovery period after transition to Earth gravity. In addition, the fine motor control studies conducted to date have not been conclusive regarding the effects of microgravity. The aim of the proposed study is to determine the effects of long-duration microgravity and of different gravitational transitions on fine motor performance.

The upcoming 1-yr International Space Station (ISS) mission will provide the desired environment and will offer two in-flight subjects; six standard duration subjects will participate as well, either during this mission or on subsequent missions. This study will add to the knowledgebase and provide improved capabilities to judge the risk of fine motor performance decrements due to long-duration microgravity. The proposed investigation will also supplement two other sensorimotor investigations by providing an additional measure of functional performance postflight, and a new sensorimotor functional test in-flight. These data will contribute to closure of several NASA research gaps and may drive in-flight mitigations and design decisions for future vehicles and habitats.

ISS specific aims: Aim 1: Determine the effects of long-duration microgravity on fine motor performance.

1) How does fine motor performance in microgravity trend/vary over the duration of a year-long space mission?

2) How does fine motor performance on orbit compare with that of a closely matched subject on Earth?

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Special Edition on Mars Analogous Mission Aim 2: Determine the effects of different gravitational transitions on fine motor performance.

1) How does performance trend/vary before and after gravitational transitions, including the periods of early flight adaptation, and very early/near immediate post-flight periods?

Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA) specific aims: Aim 1: Pilot-test the proposed tablet computer, handhold, and fine motor tasks in a 1-g analog environment to identify any hardware or software issues (task, data collection, data download). Results will be used to further refine flight study logistics.

Aim 2: Test the usability of the fine motor tasks with crew-like subjects, and examine the resulting data to aid in planning statistical analyses. Results will be used to fine-tune the software and hardware for the 1-year mission.

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APPROACH: ISS Each baseline data collection (BDC) session will consist of a 10-15 minute test, performed on the subject’s iPad. Each session will consist of a test battery of four tests. The test battery tasks include a multidirectional pointing task, a dragging task, a shape tracing task, and a pinch rotate task, all of which examine various aspects of fine motor performance. BDC sessions require a PI-provided iPad handhold and stylus.

Preflight there will be a familiarization session occurring no later than L-90 (within 15 days of the first preflight BDC session). During this session, Fine Motor Skills software will be installed on the subject’s NASA-issued or PI-provided iPad. The subject will then learn to perform each of the tasks, using each input method (finger, stylus). Pre-flight BDC will consist of four test sessions equally spaced between L-90 and L-60. These tests should be no more than 8 days apart and no less than 2 days apart.

Each in-flight data collection session will consist of a 15-minute test, performed on an iPad. Sessions will consist of a test battery of four tasks that examine various aspects of fine motor performance. The tasks include a multidirectional pointing task, a dragging task, a shape tracing task, and a pinch-rotate task. In-flight operations require use of a handhold and stylus. In-flight sessions should occur as soon as possible, but no later than FD 2, 5, and then every 5 days (+/- 2 days) for the first 4 months and every 10 days for the rest of the flight. Sessions should be completed no earlier than 1 hour after waking and no later than 4 hours after waking. There should be no more than 3 days between the FD 2 and FD 5 tests. There should be no less than 3 days and no more than 7 days between any two consecutive tests for the first 4 months. There should be no less than 3 days and no more than 12 days between any two consecutive tests for the remainder of the mission. The last session should be completed within 1 week of landing.

Postflight participants will be asked to complete 1-2 test sessions at stop-overs during the return flight. Postflight sessions will occur on R+1, R+3 (+/-1 day), R+5 (+/-1 day), R+15 (+/- 2 days) and R+30 (+/- 2 days).

The R+3 and R+5 tests can be on consecutive days, but not on the same day. There should be three separate tests within R+6 (1, 3 and 5 are ideal). All sessions after R+5 are +/-2 days (10 minutes each). If it increases time efficiency for the crew, the sessions can be scheduled and coordinated with the Field Test and Functional Task Test (FTT) postflight sessions.

HERA To complete the tasks, participants used an iPad with the test battery software and a stylus. The stylus was tethered to the tablet. Some tasks were completed with only finger or stylus; some were completed with both input methods.

Investigators proposed a number of test battery tasks that examined various aspects of fine motor performance: (a) multidirectional pointing task, in which the participants selected targets of different sizes at various distances; (b) dragging task, in which a target was dragged from one position to another; (c) shape-tracing task; and (d) pinch-rotate task, in which a geometric object was pinched and rotated using the touchscreen to match an object presented on the screen.

Each session consisted of multiple trials of all four tasks. In the debrief session, participants were asked to complete short surveys about the tasks and the hardware. This was a small pilot test for the ISS portion of the study evaluating the software and hardware during HERA Campaign 1, mission 3. Results for this portion of the study aren’t available.

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Evaluation of the ISS Food Intake Tracker App (ISS FIT)

The International Space Station (ISS) Food Intake Tracker (ISS FIT) iPad Application (App) is a dietary intake tracking method to provide a more efficient and accurate way to track intake during space flight. It has been designed to allow users to enter foods by either selecting food items from a list of foods, take pictures of the foods, barcodes, or labels, voice recording what was consumed, or typing the foods. It is intended for the users to record food on a daily basis during a mission.

This study is a technical demonstration of the App, with data collection. Subjects participating in the Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA) ground analog studies at NASA or NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) missions where space foods are used will be recruited. Because the App has a database of space foods, it is best to test in an environment where space foods are used.

APPROACH: The App data will be stored on a server and downlinked to the Nutritional Biochemistry Laboratory where the intake data will be translated into nutrient data. This will be used in ISS research (e.g., Integrated Nutrition study), and will provide an option for supporting (ISS) Medical Operations requirements testing.

Subjects will be briefed on how to use the ISS FIT App and they will be asked to record all of the dietary intake during the mission. After the mission, investigators will debrief them and ask for all feedback on how it worked, suggestions for improvements, and aspects that didn’t work.

RESULTS: This experiment is in progress. However, the data will not be analyzed statistically. The point of this study is to demonstrate that dietary intake can be tracked using the ISS FIT during a NEEMO or HERA mission, and identify areas in the App design for improvement. This experiment was on HERA Campaign 1, missions 2-4 and HERA Campaign 2, all missions.

NASA’s ISS FIT iPad App:This app has been posted under an Apache license and is open source. Feel free to download, tinker and modify.

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Special Edition on Mars Analogous Mission Habitability Ground and Analog Testing (Habitability Testing) This study serves as a precursor for a related study that will take place on the International Space Station (ISS).

The purpose of this protocol is to allow for ground and analog-based testing of tools and methods intended for use in subsequent inflight studies. This research builds on previous ground and analog studies performed under Protocol CR00000016, "Human Factors and Habitability Assessment Tool."

Data collected using the Space Habitability Observation Reporting Tool (iSHORT), crew collected videos and questionnaires that will help characterize the habitability in ground and analog-based based environments.

These naturalistic techniques provide crewmembers with the opportunity to self-report habitability and human factors observations near real-time, which is not systematically done during current ISS missions. Automated tracking of person location will enable researchers to study traffic patterns and space utilization within the environment. The results of this project will feed into future studies and may be included as part of the complement for larger analog tests such as NASA’s Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA) unit.

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APPROACH: This research will extend recently completed Space Human Factors Engineering (SHFE) prefects as preliminary work for an in-flight habitability assessment. The preliminary work primarily consisted of the iSHORT tool development, the testing of both the iSHORT and targeted video data collection techniques, and the development of tools and methods to aid in the design and assessment habitable volume for long-duration space flight. Data collected using iSHORT walk-through videos and habitability and human factors questionnaires will assist in documenting/quantifying details about crew performance of tasks. These tools will provide crewmembers with the opportunity to self-report habitability and human factors observations near real-time.

While in the HERA, subjects will participate in the following: iShort - Subject will use iShort to document observations.

Walk through videos- Subjects will use a video camera or iPad to provide a guided tour, selecting an area or task to describe to an audience of human factors engineers.

Task-based videos - Subjects will talk aloud through performance of pre-selected tasks to provide insight to human factors engineers.

Questionnaires - Subjects will complete questionnaires addressing a diverse set of habitability and human factors questions similar to topics typically covered during post-mission debriefs.

PI conferences - Subjects will participate in a real-time conference with the PI. The crew will be asked questions regarding human factors/ human habitability.

This experiment was performed on all four missions during HERA Campaign 1. During HERA Campaign 2, the iShort was used an operational tool only. No statistical analyses was performed.

RESULTS: This experiment is currently in progress.

Individualized Real-Time Neurocognitive Assessment Toolkit for Space Flight Fatigue (Cognition) This project addresses the NSBRI Human Factors and Performance Team goal to develop tools to assess crew performance in real-time and evaluate countermeasures to mitigate the effects of fatigue, circadian misalignment, and work-overload. It has secondary relevance to the Neurobehavioral and Psychosocial Factors and Sensorimotor Adaptation Teams. It is responsive to the critical need to identify how a range of cognitive functions of astronauts can be affected in space flight by fatigue alone, its interaction with other risk factors and conditions (e.g., elevated CO2, intracranial pressure, space fog), and countermeasures. The project will deliver a comprehensive, software-based, neurocognitive toolkit (Cognition). By building on state-of-the-art neuropsychological test development, the toolkit will permit evaluation of a full range of cognitive functions using brief (1-5 minutes), validated procedures. The tests include - but go beyond - what is currently measured by WinSCAT and the Reaction Self Test on the International Space Station (ISS). Importantly, the toolkit will permit rapid assessment of performance in cognitive, social-emotional, and sensorimotor domains.

The project has the following 5 specific aims: Specific Aim 1: Development of short-duration adaptive versions of neuropsychological tests for space flight; Specific Aim 2: Establish learning curves for neuropsychological tests and validate sensitivity to sleep deprivation; Specific Aim 3: Cognition software development and optimization for space flight; Specific Aim 4: NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) field testing, astronaut learning curves, and astronaut norms for performance feedback algorithm development; Specific Aim 5: ISS feasibility study.

APPROACH:

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Special Edition on Mars Analogous Mission Real-time performance assessment algorithms will be individualized to each astronaut’s norm, and adjusted for learning using a data modeling approach, in order to optimize individual and team performance relative to the effects of fatigue and related cognitive impacts. The toolkit will facilitate identification of underlying neural mechanisms affected when cognitive deficits are identified, by using tests selected on the basis of published fMRI studies that identify the specific brain regions sub-served by each test. Toolkit development will begin at TRL 5/CRL 6, and progress from laboratory, to NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO), Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA),to ISS (TRL 7/CRL 8). The resulting comprehensive, neurosciencevalidated, cognitive test battery for real-time evaluation of astronauts in space will be an essential detection technology for effective fatigue countermeasure management of astronaut performance in space. The link to neuroscience will yield directions for mechanisms of cause and potential interventions.

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ISS Subjects will perform the Cognition battery (all 10 tests) one time during familiarization at JSC, three times pre-flight (L-90, L-60, L-10), and three times post-flight (R+10, R+60, R+90). There is some flexibility in this schedule. Each test session is expected to require 20-30 minutes total time which includes time to launch and close out the Cognition software. The Cognition battery should be performed with as little distraction as possible. This test should be performed in the evening within two hours of going to bed. The Cognition software will be loaded on the subject’s NASA-provided laptop, and the laptop will be calibrated during the familiarization session.

Inflight, Cognition will be performed on the Station Support Computers (SSCs) or Human Research Facility (HRF) Portable Computers (PCs) 11 times. Crewmembers of standard duration will perform tests on the following days: four times early in-flight with a one-week interval and seven times later in-flight. Crewmembers of extended duration will perform tests on FD 6 and subsequent tests will be performed at 34 day intervals. There is some flexibility in this schedule. This test should be performed in the evening within two hours of going to bed.

Ground A ground-based study at JSC will be used to field test the Cognition battery in a NASA work environment, evaluate the Cognition interface based on astronaut feedback, investigate the magnitude of learning effects for the different Cognition tests, and start generating a database for astronaut norms for feedback algorithm development (this will later be expanded with pre-flight ISS data). To achieve this, investigators will complete evaluation of the Cognition software interface in N=20 astronauts, astronaut candidates, mission control members, biomedical engineers and flight surgeons at JSC. Each participant will be asked to perform the test battery (i.e., all 10 tests) 15 times, for a total of 300 battery administrations. The data acquired on the ground at JSC is essential to establishing astronaut norms, as astronauts have been shown to outperform standard normative populations. The data from the mission control members, biomedical engineers and flight surgeons will be compared to the astronaut data, and will only contribute to the normative database if no statistical differences in test performance are found.

HERA Cognition battery in NASA’s HERA facility of N=16 for four simulated missions is scheduled. For the HERA arm of the study, participants will be asked to also wear an Actiwatch to monitor their sleep-wake behavior and location within the facility.

RESULTS: Preliminary summarized results are available.

The first full version of Cognition was launched in November 2012 (Aims 1 and 3) and deployed in the sleep restriction studies at the University of Pennsylvania (Aim 2). Since then, 71 laboratory participants have completed the test battery (all 10 tests) 12-18 times (N=40 total sleep deprivation, N=64 partial sleep restriction, N=7 control subjects). Preliminary analyses presented at the 2014 HRP meeting suggest that all 10 Cognition tests are sensitive to the effects of acute total sleep deprivation, with the PVT being the most sensitive test (Aim 2). Progress was also made in gathering normative and analog data from astronauts and astronaut surrogate populations. Data acquisition in mission controllers (N=11/11) and astronauts (N=7/8) at JSC was found to be feasible (Aim 4). Data acquisition was also found to be feasible in space analog environments, particularly at the HERA and the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) facilities. Investigators tested 12 HERA crewmembers of three 7-day missions and 5 HI-SEAS crewmembers of one 4-month mission. In July 2014, they familiarized 3 astronauts to the Cognition test battery as part of the ISS feasibility study in close collaboration with ISS-MP (Aim 5). The first astronaut is scheduled to launch for a 6-month mission with increment 41 in November 2014.

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Measuring, Monitoring, and Regulating Teamwork for Long Duration Missions One of the critical human performance challenges for long duration space missions is the maintenance of good team interaction processes in isolated, confined, and extreme (ICE) environments. The purpose of this research is to understand the factors that facilitate and maintain good team "processes" (e.g., collaboration and cohesion) that support effectiveness in ICE settings. There is considerable research that supports the relationship between team processes and work effectiveness. However, most of the substantial research on this topic has adopted a cross-sectional research design where a set of team member characteristics (i.e., personality, demographics) are collected at a single time point along with a set of team processes (e.g., team cohesion, collaboration, coordination) and team effectiveness ratings. Although such data are informative of team functioning, they are unable to capture human interaction dynamics. In contrast to this "snapshot" approach, we view interaction processes, such as collaboration and cohesion, and work effectiveness as highly dynamic processes with natural cycles, rhythms, and patterns of variation. This proposed project is focused on understanding the factors that influence these dynamic cycles of interaction and, ultimately, to learn how to help team members maintain good collaboration, cohesion, and effectiveness.

There are three specific aims of this course of research: 1.Benchmark long duration team functioning in isolated, confined, and extreme (ICE) analog environments.

2.Extend engineering development of an unobtrusive monitoring technology (i.e., a wearable wireless sensor package).

3.Develop teamwork interaction metrics and regulation support systems. In particular, investigators will be testing our development of the monitoring technology in the field, using the benchmarking data we have collected in previous lab and field studies to guide how we capture and analyze interactions in the HERA environment.

They will be using various data collection methods to achieve these aims: Daily diaries, event based sampling on interactions and unobtrusive monitoring devices. Combined, these data will allow investigators to benchmark team cohesion and performance dynamics over the duration of the mission in an analog environment.

APPROACH: This research is designed collect data from team members in a confined environment. Investigators will have the participants provide surveys before and after the mission about their demographics, expectations for the mission, previous experience, how they felt about the HERA mission experience, etc. They will be utilizing event sampling methodology (interval contingent, event contingent, and signal contingent) in order to capture the experiences, affect, and team processes of individuals at various times of the day. Investigators will also be utilizing monitoring technology to capture various physical and physiological indicators (e.g., heart rate, motion, sound intensity) to be used in understanding team processes. Finally, they will have access to other behavioral data collected by the facility such as audio recordings and video data in order to compare our data to and to use for further analyses that will be available through the generic HERA protocol. Analyses of such data will allow investigation of the factors that shape team dynamics and effectiveness in confined environments.

RESULTS: Preliminary results are available.

Benchmark Long Duration Team Functioning in ICE Analog Environments: A significant portion of research effort was invested in developing, initiating, and conducting benchmarking data collections over the last several months. A description of our research activities follows.

Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) Stations and Field Teams in Aurora Basin (AB): Investigators extended their collaborative research with Dr. Jeff Ayton of the AAD. They initiated new data collections with station personnel who deployed to winter-over for 2013-2014. This involved extending their research protocol with AAD; renewing Institutional Review Board (IRB) approvals by the AAD, Michigan State University (MSU), and NASA; and working with their collaborator and his team to recruit participants. Approximately 44 participants from Mawson, Davis, and Casey Stations, as well as field science teams, are participating in this ongoing effort to benchmark individual and team functioning in ICE settings.

This ongoing research assesses daily teamwork processes using Experience Sampling Methodology (ESM), which captures a snapshot of key individual and team reactions to events of the day. Although the absolute sample sizes tend to be small, the primary focus of the research is on the dynamics of reactions over a period of nine months to a year (i.e., approximately 270 to 360 measurement periods), which yields insights into long duration individual and team functioning.

Science Field Teams in Antarctica: Investigators also extended their ongoing collaboration with science teams that deploy to the ice during the Antarctic summer for 2013-2014. This involved extending their research proto-

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Special Edition on Mars Analogous Mission col, renewing MSU and NASA IRB approvals, and recruiting participants from the science teams. Approximately 10 participants are contributing to the research effort, providing daily ESM reports.

Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA): Investigators initiated new benchmarking research in a NASA transit mission simulation, HERA, which is located at the Johnson Space Center (JSC). HERA missions involve a crew of members, selected from NASA volunteers. HERA simulates transit for exploration of an asteroid. Thus far, mission duration is approximately seven days. This research has involved extending their protocol, securing IRB approvals from NASA and MSU, training personnel, and coordinating research activities with several other investigator teams. They also have taken on the responsibility of coordinating several end-of-day measures across investigators and then compiling and sharing the data. They are also the lead team for coordinating interaction badge data (the "SS" badge provides shared data; the other MSU badge is under development and evaluation).

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In addition to the use of their standard ESM protocol, investigators also have developed a "simulation within the simulation" that is used to evaluate their monitoring technology. Heretofore, the monitoring "badge" has only been evaluated in lab settings for basic validation. This effort is extending evaluation for field testing and user reactions. Thus far, they have collected data for the first two HERA missions in February and April of 2014 and expect to collect data for the Campaign of four missions planned for 2015.

Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS): Investigators initiated new benchmarking research in a surface exploration simulation, HI-SEAS, which is located at 8200 feet on Mt. Mona Loa on the big island of Hawaii. This has involved extending their protocol; securing IRB approvals from the University of Hawaii (under the PI, Kim Binsted), MSU, and NASA; and substantially aiding the HI-SEAS mission design.

They have contributed to crew selection (they screened on the five factor model of personality and cognitive ability), the mission story / script, and mission EVA / scenario design.

Investigators are currently collecting ESM data from the 5-person crew during their 4-month mission that started in April 2014. The crew is also using the SS badge so they can enlarge the pool of benchmarking data for interactions over time. They are now in preparation mode for the next HI-SEAS mission that will involve a crew of 6 for 8 months. A 12 month mission is planned for the following year.

NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) Mission 18: Finally, investigators are preparing for data collection from a crew of four astronauts for NEEMO18. Training at JSC for the crew is about to begin and the roughly one week mission will run in July. The astronauts represent a mix of agencies, so the crew is international. NEEMO18 data collection has involved extension / modification of their protocol; coordinating IRB approvals with NASA, MSU, and several international space agencies; training revisions; and coordination among investigating teams and NASA elements.

Extend Engineering Development of an Unobtrusive Monitoring Technology: The monitoring technology under development has been successfully validated in the laboratory and is now under evaluation in NASA mission simulations. Primary objectives for engineering development center on: (1) improved packaging and enhancing robustness of the wearable interaction monitoring badges and (2) detection of swallow monitoring using the wearable sensor system.

Packaging and robustness: Investigators have developed a 3-D printed case for the wearable badge and for the radio access point. The case contributes to robustness in terms of the badge’s abilities to withstand rough handling in variable environmental conditions. The new access point is also capable of all the sensing possible using the badges.

To improve energy-efficiency, investigators have employed a series of transmission power control protocols (developed by Co-PI Biswas’ group) running on the badge hardware. A novel measurement based link power control mechanism with closed-loop feedback control techniques was used. These protocols have improved the battery life of the system. The current version of the badge with all these new software and protocol can run up to six hours of data collection in one recharge. These new robust badges were used in the HERA data collection sessions during this reporting period.

Swallow monitoring: Investigators have developed a wearable solid food intake monitoring system that analyzes human breathing signal and swallow sequence locality for solid food intake monitoring. Food intake is identified by the way of detecting a person’s swallow events. The system works based on a key observation that the otherwise continuous breathing process is interrupted by a short apnea during swallowing. A Support Vector Machine (SVM) is first used for detecting such apneas in breathing signals collected from a wearable chest-belt.

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Special Edition on Mars Analogous Mission The resulting swallow detection is then refined using a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) based mechanism that leverages known locality in the sequence of human swallows. Using the developed system in this reporting period investigators are experimentally able to demonstrate the effectiveness of such two-stage SVM-HMM based mechanism for solid food intake detection via analyzing breathing signal and human swallow sequence locality.

Apnea detection also has potential as an additional data modality for assessing stress during team member interactions. As this badge capability develops, it will be integrated into our phased lab validation process.

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Optical Computer Recognition of Stress, Affect and Fatigue in Space Flight (OCR Validation) The overarching objective of the research is to address the NSBRI Neurobehavioral and Psychosocial Factors goal to "Refine entirely non-obtrusive objective means of detecting and mitigating cognitive performance deficits, stress, fatigue, anxiety and depression for the operational setting of space flight," and in doing so, provide an effective method to predict, detect, and assess decrements in behavioral health and fatigue (which may negatively affect performance) during space flight missions. Astronauts must maintain high-level performance while experiencing demanding workload/work schedules, extreme environmental risks, and psychosocial stressors in space (e.g., isolation, confinement). Stress, negative emotions and fatigue can jeopardize their cognitive performance, behavioral health and interpersonal functioning. This objective will be accomplished through the development of an optical computer recognition (OCR) technology that provides early detection of facial expressions of stress, negative moods and fatigue during space flight. The feasibility of an objective, unobtrusive OCR technology for space flight will be tested in the NASAŠs Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA), a space flight analog environment.

Specific Aims: 1.Test the technical feasibility of acquiring facial video data of astronaut-surrogates living and working in a space analog facility for OCR analyses.

2.Determine the validity of OCR algorithm accuracy for detecting positive and negative facial expressions in the HERA space flight analog.

3.Determine the validity of OCR algorithm accuracy for detecting oculomotor fatigue in the HERA space flight analog.

4.Identify changes or improvements to the OCR system to optimize functionality.

APPROACH: Facial video data from N=16 astronaut surrogates living and working in the HERA facility will be acquired during two separate seven day missions. Facial video footage will be collected continuously and unobtrusively at work stations and in social areas to monitor participants’ facial displays of positive and negative affect, fatigue, and stress.

In addition to the OCR analyses of video footage, the investigators want to collect self-report data via a brief questionnaire. Self-report data via brief daily testing sessions (in the morning (AM) and evening (PM)). The AM testing session will include self-report ratings of sleep duration, timing and quality, as well as current mood state. The PM testing session will ask HERA crewmembers to rate that dayŠs workload, current mood state and conflicts. These self-report questionnaires will be administered in paper or electronic form as part of a self-report diary for each individual crewmember.

RESULTS: The following tasks were accomplished in Year 01 of the project.

1. At the request of NSBRI, the project plan was re-scoped from the laboratory to NASA’s Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA), to complete a "proof-of-principle study."

2. Extensive work was performed by the Dinges Lab integrating OCR video capture into the HERA facility at JSC, for maximum reliable data acquisition in NASA’s Campaign 1 HERA missions 1 and 2. Working in close collaboration with NASA engineers, they installed and managed throughout both HERA missions, a sophisticated system for OCR video data acquisition, transmission, and storage at the HERA facility. They were on-site at HERA to manage all OCR data acquisition before, during, and after each mission (800h).

3. OCR video data was acquired throughout both of the first two 7-day Campaign 1 HERA missions on N=4 crewmembers per mission (N=8 total). Video data were collected approximately 16 hours per day of each 7-day mission (i.e., 7d x 16h = 112h of video per mission) when crews were not in their sleeping quarters, where there were no cameras allowed. A total of 111 hours of video data for OCR analyses were collected during HERA-1 (HERA-2 video data acquisition was underway through April 2014, and has yielded a comparably complete video data set). Initial evaluation of the OCR videos from HERA-1 reveled that a total of 89h (80%) of the 111h of video data acquired was useable for OCR analyses (the remaining 20% was unusable due to crewmember movement out of frame or location with no camera).

4. Videos from HERA-1 were run through the OCR algorithm for emotional expressions at the Metaxas Lab, following training of the algorithm using video of HERA crewmembers pre-mission. Results of the OCR algo-

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Special Edition on Mars Analogous Mission rithm scoring of video data from HERA-1 were compared (double-blind) to the results of human scorers of the videos, who were trained in the Facial Expression Coding System (FACES). Relative to human scorers, the OCR algorithm had a sensitivity of 80% and a specificity of 64% (overall accuracy 71%). HERA-2 OCR data evaluation will be undertaken in May 2014, and OCR algorithm adjustments will be undertaken to further increase its sensitivity and specificity.

5. Crewmembers’ ratings of tiredness, fatigue, mental and physical exhaustion (AM/PM), as well as sleep quality, conflicts, and social desirability were acquired in HERA-1 and 2. Data were 96-100% complete.

6. The OCR algorithm was further enhanced at the Metaxas Lab to (1) accommodate in-plane rotations of human faces as are likely to occur in microgravity, and (2) to simultaneously handle face detection, pose-free landmark localization and tracking in real time.

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Protocols for Asynchronous Communication in Space Operations: Communication Analysis (Com Analysis) Effective and efficient communication between Mission Control and space crews is essential for successful task performance and mission safety. The importance of team communication is heightened when unforeseen problems arise, such as system failures that are time-critical and require extensive coordination and collaboration between space and ground crews. During long duration missions and missions beyond Low Earth Orbit, spaceground communications will involve delays up to 20 minutes one way, a reality that poses a formidable challenge to team communication and task performance.

This study will determine how transmission delays impact team communication, teamwork, and task performance in relation to varying task demands and media constraints. A series of four studies will be conducted involving laboratory experiments (Studies 1 and 2 below) and research in space-analog environments. The overall aim of the proposed study is to develop and validate protocols supporting Mission Control - space crew communication and collaboration during long-duration space missions.

Specific study goals are: (1) Determine the impact of communication delays on communication, teamwork and task performance in relation to varying task demands, i.e., procedural tasks vs. tasks requiring analysis and decision making, and different communication media (voice versus text). (2) Develop and validate measures to assess and characterize team communication effectiveness and task performance in relation to different operational tasks. (3) Develop and validate communication protocols to support joint problem solving and decision making by mission controllers and space crews during periods of asynchronous communication.

Four studies in three research phases will be conducted involving laboratory experiments and research in spaceanalog environments. For Phase 1, investigators are analyzing audio-recordings of crew-ground communications collected during the Autonomous Mission Operations (AMO) study conducted in the Deep Space Habitat (DSH) at JSC in May/June 2012. This analysis will identify aspects of team communication most vulnerable to transmission delays, as well as effective strategies to mitigate those effects.

Research during Phase 2 will extend this analysis through three studies; two laboratory experiments with sufficiently large sample sizes to support inferential analyses, and an analysis of space-ground interactions during a space simulation study conducted in NASA’s Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA). In Study 1 investigators will examine the impact of transmission delay on team communication under different media conditions and in relation to different task characteristics. In the HERA analysis investigators will study whether longer time delays (as can be expected during missions into deep space) influence team communication in significantly different ways than the shorter delays considered in the AMO study and in Experiment One. Moreover, this analysis will provide insight into which communication medium (voice versus text) team members prefer in relation to different tasks. Results will be used to develop communication protocols to facilitate team collaboration and coordination during periods of asynchronous communication, irrespective of the length of transmission delay. The effectiveness of these protocols will be evaluated in Study 2. Their feasibility in space operations will be assessed during Phase 3 in several short-duration analog demonstrations conducted in HERA or in remote environments such as NEEMO or DRATS. Research during HERA 2 will assess the effectiveness of communication training and medium-specific communication protocols and conventions designed to support space-ground collaborations during periods of transmission delay. Prior to a mission, HERA crewmembers and CAPCOMs will receive training in the use of the communication protocols. Training will take 45 min to 60 min. During the HERA simulation communications between the four participants acting as astronauts and those in the role of flight controllers (N=8) will be delayed on 4 days. Experimental manipulation will concern the duration of the communication delay (2 days with a 5 min delay and 2 days with a 10 min delay) and the available communication medium (one day of each delay segment will involve voice communication only between HERA crew and CAPCOM; the other day

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Special Edition on Mars Analogous Mission will involve only text-based communication between remote partners). Communications will occur while distributed team members collaborate on tasks that will be built into the simulation. Some of these tasks will be routine (procedural), while others will involve off-nominal events that will require joint problem solving by distributed team members. Voice and text-based communications between team members will be recorded and subsequently analyzed to determine whether communication protocols supported space-ground collaboration.

HERA crewmembers and CAPCOMS will also be asked to assess the effectiveness of the communication protocols in supporting their interactions during tasks on days with transmission delay. There will also be a survey on the day following the comm delay days, asking crewmembers and CAPCOMS to rate the effectiveness of specific elements of the communication protocols. Two additional surveys on non-delayed days will provide baseline ratings of communication efficiency.

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RESULTS: This study is in progress. However, preliminary results are available.

Major accomplishments for Year 2 are: (1) Analysis of team performance and communication data collected during Year 1. Data were from a laboratory experiment [San Francisco State University (SFSU) Study 1] that examined the impact of communication delay and media on teamwork in remote teams. (2) Participation in two simulations in the Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA) facility to determine the impact of long intervals of communication delays on teamwork. (3) Development of media-specific communication protocols and conventions to support collaboration in distributed teams communicating asynchronously. (4) Evaluation of these communication protocols in the laboratory (SFSU Study 2) and in two analog environments (HERA and NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations NEEMO).

1. SFSU Study 1: Impact of Communication Delay on Teamwork and Task Performance The overall aim of this experiment was to determine the impact of transmission delay on team communication and task performance in relation to varying task demands (procedural vs. ill-defined), and different communication media (voice vs. text). Spatially distributed teams of three collaborated in a computer-based task environment and communicated either by voice-over-internet or via a texting tool. The micro-world for the study was AutoCAMS 2.0 which simulates the life support system of a spacecraft and requires team members to monitor and control different subsystems, and to diagnose and repair system failures. Each team was required to perform procedural and problem solving tasks during one synchronous and one asynchronous (5-min delay in communications transmission) flight segment. The experiment extended through two days: day 1 involved 2-3 hours of position-specific (Flight System Engineer, FSE, or Pioneer Crewmember) task training; day 2 consisted of two 90-minute experimental sessions. 72 (24 teams of 3) undergraduate and graduate students between the ages of 21-55 participated. Task performance was measured in terms of time required to initiate a successful repair (= repair duration) as well as accuracy of the repair procedure. Communication analysis focused on the interactions between the FSE and the Pioneer crew during the failure repair tasks. To date detailed analysis have been completed for communications occurring under time delayed conditions as findings were a precondition for the design of the communication protocols and their validation in SFSU Study 2 and the HERA and NEEMO missions.

Analyses revealed that transmission delay impacted repair duration and more importantly, that its effect varied by communication medium. When communication was delayed, teams used a comparable amount of time to repair system failures, irrespective of the communication medium used. However, when communication was synchronous, voice teams outperformed text groups. Likewise, teams’ accuracy in performing system repairs was influenced by communication medium. Overall, teams communicating by text undertook more incorrect repairs than teams communicating by voice, although this effect was most pronounced when communication was synchronous as opposed to asynchronous. The analysis of team communication focused on Pioneer Crew/FSE interactions during transmission delay. Medium-specific differences concerned structural aspects of team communication (i.e., communication rate; distance between adjacency pairs, such as question and answer) as well as content variables (i.e., use of ambiguous terms; missing responses). Specifically, text teams made shorter and more frequent communications than voice teams, and in so doing kept adjacency pairs further apart (e.g., questions and answers were separated by more communications when using text). Text teams were more likely to use ambiguous terms; that is, terms whose meaning was underspecified (e.g., "We have a problem") or could not be established within a turn but rested on information in preceding turns. These differences are consistent with medium-specific opportunities and constraints. Text provides participants with a written record of their on-going conversation, and thus may help them to keep track of related contributions and the identity of referents. Voice communication is cognitively more taxing than text-based communication insofar as participants need to remember their ongoing discourse to interpret new information. Voice teams seemingly adapted to this constraint by talking less frequently while packing more information into one turn than text teams; this behavior kept related communications closely aligned and that may have aided comprehension.

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However, in both text and voice teams’ instances of miscommunication in which team members failed to account for the communication delay were evident. Team members mistook a remote partner’s communication that immediately followed their own transmission as a response to it, or they repeated a message before they could have received a response from their partner. These instances required additional communication in which team members clarified their situation understanding, or they spiraled into misunderstanding from which team members never recovered and thus were unable to repair a system failure. These findings led to the design of media-specific communication protocols that sought to minimize the risk of miscommunication and to help remote team members communicate efficiently under time-delayed conditions. Communication protocols will be described below in section (3). Additional analyses are planned to relate communication behavior by voice and text teams to their task performance.

2. Analog Research to Examine the Impact of Longer (10-min) Communication Delay on Teamwork Investigators were invited to participate in two HERA (Human Exploration Research Analog) simulations (Feb / March 2014; April 2014) to examine the impact of a 10 min transmission delay on team communication under different media conditions. These studies were not part of their Year 2 proposed work; rather they were responding to the opportunity to participate in collaborative research within a space analog environment and to collect data from astronaut-like participants. Two days of the 7-day simulations involved a communication delay of 10 min; on one of these days communication between the HERA crew and mission control was voice-only; on the other day participants had voice and text communication available to them. The four HERA crew members and 6 mission control personnel responded to daily surveys asking them to rate the effectiveness of their communication during specific tasks, and on the day with voice and text communication to explain their choice of medium. In addition to the surveys, investigators plan to analyze crew-mission control interactions using the same coding categories as in SFSU Study 1. Analysis is ongoing. Survey responses indicate that crewmembers decided to talk less with mission control on days with communication delay but generally judged their interactions to be effective on these days. Choice of communication medium was driven by task constraints- voice was preferred during tasks requiring manual input - and by communication goal; that is, crew members preferred text to communicate task completion and voice to request assistance from mission control.

3. Design of Medium-Specific Communication Protocols The structure of the communication protocols was informed by schema-based approaches to instructional design; their specific content was based on findings in SFSU Study 1 and the analysis of space-ground communication in the Autonomous Mission Operations (AMO) study, as well as recommendations discussed by Love and Reagan (2013). The overall design objective was to facilitate remote collaboration under time-delayed conditions utilizing medium-specific opportunities. Specific design goals included: to help remote team members keep track of conversational threads and the temporal sequence of contributions, and to establish common ground in an efficient manner. The effectiveness of the communication protocols is being assessed in the laboratory with student participants as well as in analog environments (see section 4 below).

4. Evaluation of Communication Protocols The same task environment (AutoCams) as in SFSU Study 1 was used to assess the effectiveness of the communication protocols. Participants in the experimental group received the communication protocols and instructions on how to apply them as part of their position-specific (FSE or Pioneer crewmember) task training. Participants in the control group received only task specific training. After training, participants completed two 90-min sessions, one in which the communication between the Pioneer crew and the FSE was voice-based, and one that provided only text communication. Communication between remote team members in both sessions was delayed by 5 minutes. The study design included 24 teams of three; data collection was completed at the end of June 2014.

The communication protocols have also been introduced in two analog environments to evaluate their effectiveness with astronaut-like participants (HERA-C1M3) and astronauts (NEEMO 18 and 19). Participants in all three simulations received communication training in June 2014. The HERA mission was completed in June; NEEMO 18 is scheduled for July 2014, and NEEMO 19 for September 2014. Participants are being asked to follow the communication protocols in crew-mission control interactions on mission days with a transmission delay and to complete surveys concerning their effectiveness and the importance of individual components.

These studies are part of research proposed for Year 3.

Sensorimotor Assessment and Rehabilitation in Parabolic Flight (Sensorimotor Rehab) The purpose of this study was to evaluate a sensorimotor assessment and rehabilitation apparatus (SARA) during multiple analogs of space flight (parabolic flight, bed rest, Human Exploration Research Analog - HERA, etc.). SARA encompasses a battery of behavioral sensorimotor assessment tests that monitor posture, gait, dynamic visual acuity (DVA), and binocular misalignments. The goals of implementing SARA in the HERA were to

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validate SARA testing in an operational setting (including the ability to self-administer the SARA tests) and to explore changes in sensorimotor function following prolonged exposure to isolated and confined environments.

Specific Aims: 1.Evaluation of the overall feasibility of using SARA in the multiple analogs to space flight (i.e. bed rest, HERA).

2.Evaluation of the sensitivity of SARA in assessing sensorimotor function as altered by changing gravity conditions.

3.Evaluation of subject comfort while performing the tasks, especially when making head movements in multiple orientations and multiple g-levels.

Testing of Vestibulo-Ocular Function: Subjects were asked to make coordinated head and eye movements while viewing visual targets presented on the tablet computer. Since ambient visual cues influence testing of vestibulo-ocular function and ocular alignment, subjects were in a dark room (e.g., during ground testing) or under a black cloth shroud (e.g., onboard the aircraft; it can be removed immediately in the case of an emergency or at the request of the subject). A motion sensor attached to the head via a custom-made dental mold bite-board or an elastic band measures head movement. The subject controls the gain of the head-motion/targetmotion process through touchscreen inputs. Subjects were asked to report the amount of apparent movement of the target. For the parabolic flight analog, the effects of g level are determined by comparing responses from identical motions in 0 g, Lunar g, Martian g, and 1.8 g. For each of the analogs, specifically, subjects performed three distinct tests: (1) nulling: Subjects made standardized pitch, yaw, and translational head movements (i.e., nodding "yes", "no", and translating the head horizontally 5-10 cm to the left and right repeatedly at frequencies between 0.5 and 2 Hz). Based on subjects’ head motions, a visual target moves, and subjects were asked to null its apparent motion (relative to inertial space or relative to the subject’s head, as directed) by turning a motion-gain dial up or down on the tablet; (2) alignment: Subjects were presented with two images, one to each eye. They were asked to adjust the position of the image in one eye (vertically or in torsion) so that the images appear aligned with each other. Subjects were asked to perform each of these tasks in 0g, 1.8g, Lunar g, Martian g, and 1g (e.g., during breaks between parabolas) while seated upright, lying onside, and possibly free-floating;(3) Dynamic visual acuity: Subject made active head rotations in pitch and yaw while holding the computer tablet in front of them. The subjects were asked to identify letters that present on the tablet screen during the head motion.

Testing of Saccade Accuracy: Subjects’ ability to make saccadic eye movements to remembered locations, as a measure of the constancy of the spatial reference frame, was also tested, without measuring eye movements. The tablet computer presented multiple targets to the subject, and he or she was asked to make saccades between these targets. The subject then closed his or her eyes and continued to make saccades to the remembered target locations. After several seconds, the eyes re-opened and a grid of symbols appeared on the display.

The subject indicated which of these symbols he or she is looking at most directly, which provided a rough measure of where the eyes are directed for comparison with the intended fixation point.

The hardware includes a tablet computer, wireless motion and EMG sensors, and plastic red-blue eyeglasses.

This test battery evaluates (1) vestibulo-ocular function, (2) vestibular-evoked myogenic potentials (VEMPs), (3) spatial orientation, (4) posture and locomotion and (5) visual performance measures. In the vestibulo-ocular tests, subjects look at visual targets (e.g., dots and lines, letters) displayed on a tablet computer and report what they see with touchscreen inputs. In some tests, they were asked to move their head while viewing these targets, and in other tests they wear plastic red-blue eyeglasses so that different information is seen by each eye. In the VEMP test, small surface EMG electrodes are placed on the head, neck, trunk, and limbs to measure muscle reflexes in response to auditory sounds (e.g., tones, clicks) or small taps to the forehead with a rubber clinical reflex hammer. In the spatial orientation task, subjects report their perceptions of "down" with their eyes closed.

In the posture and locomotion tests, changes in body sway and leg muscle activity were measured with the motion and EMG sensors when subjects stand, stand while making head movements, stand with eyes closed, walk, turn corners, and climb stairs. In the visual performance measures, subjects were asked to view and respond to visual targets displayed on the tablet computer.

Prior to flight or different analog (i.e. bed rest, HERA): 1. All subjects may be required to pass a NASA-modified Air Force Class III medical examination; subjects may also be required to pass a NASA or Air Force Physiological Training course.

2. A copy of each subject’s medical records will be reviewed by physicians at the Human Test Subject Facility at NASA Johnson Space Center.

3. All subjects provided written, informed consent to participate in this study. They also received a detailed briefing from the Principal Investigator on motion sickness symptoms and signs to look for during the flights.

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Special Edition on Mars Analogous Mission RESULTS: As the maturation plan developed (single user, independent testing) over the last year and better LED tablets were available, investigators realized the critical need to ensure subjects were tested in complete dark. Therefore, they initially designed a shroud to be built into the side of the aircraft for the parabolic flight experiments.

From November 18-22 2013, they participated in a Parabolic Flight Campaign managed by the Flight Opportunities Program. They recruited seven naïve fliers and two highly experienced fliers. Each subject flew one 40-parabola flight. All subjects were screened for motion sickness (none or minimal motion sickness susceptibility on Earth) pre-flight, trained in Vertical and Torsional Alignment Nulling tests (VAN, TAN), and participated in baseline data collection.

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Three out of the nine test subjects experienced severe motion sickness (nausea and vomiting), within the first several parabolas of their respective parabolic flights. As such, they were unable to perform the VAN and TAN tests during the actual parabolas. All (n=4) of the naive flyers showed significant g-level dependencies for both VAN and TAN tests (i.e. test scores varied depending on 0, 1, or 1.8 g levels). The experienced fliers did not show any significant differences in g level dependent misalignments; although this may be partially due to age effects (the two experience fliers were several decades older than naïve test subjects).

Next, investigators examined all nine subjects’ baseline 1g data to look for differences in ocular misalignments between the three individuals who experienced motion sickness inflight and the six who did not. There was no difference in the mean vertical or torsional ocular misalignments between these two groups. There was also no difference in the variability of the vertical ocular misalignments between these two groups. There was, however, a strong difference in the variability of the torsional ocular misalignments. The data suggests variability in torsional misalignment may be an indicator of motion sickness susceptibility.

Next, investigators examined all nine subjects’ baseline 1g data to look for differences in ocular misalignments between the three individuals who experienced motion sickness inflight and the six who did not. There was no difference in the mean vertical or torsional ocular misalignments between these two groups (VAN: p = 0.45 and r2 = 0.29, TAN: p = 0.22 and r2 = 0.45). There was also no difference in the variability of the vertical ocular misalignments between these two groups (p = 0.19 and r2 = 0.48). There was, however, a strong difference in the variability of the torsional ocular misalignments (two-sample t-test, p < 0.001 and r2 = 0.92). This finding is in agreement with a study that correlated instability of ocular torsion during the 0g phases of parabolic flight with spaceflight motion sickness. The data suggests variability in torsional misalignment may be an indicator of motion sickness susceptibility. Investigators are intrigued that this correlation result is only observed using the torsion data and not the vertical data. They presume that this is because static torsional eye positioning represents a vestigial reflex, much less subject to voluntary control than vertical eye movements.

During these November 2013 flights, investigators realized this version of the shroud would be untenable for the goals of their maturation plan. Therefore, they developed a portable shroud and participated in the July 1830, 2014 Parabolic Flight Campaign, managed by the Flight Opportunities Program. They tested n=12 subjects using their newly designed portable shrouds to measure VAN and TAN in 1 g across different head positions (upright, right ear down, left ear down, supine) and separately across different g-levels (0, 1, 1.8) while positioned upright and during the different g-levels of parabolic flight. Data suggest most of these experienced subjects expressed significant differences in their VAN and TAN responses when upright versus lying supine (p < 0.05). All subjects displayed significant differences in VAN and TAN when lying right ear down versus left ear down (p < 0.05). Parabolic flight-testing revealed that eight subjects showed significant differences in TAN (p < 0.05) and seven subjects showed significant differences in VAN (p < 0.05) in 0g versus 1.8g. Furthermore, a significant correlation was found between TAN responses inflight and TAN responses on the ground: subjects who showed significant differences in 0g versus 1.8g also showed significant differences in upright versus supine. Together, these data can be attributed to innate otolith asymmetries and suggest that VAN and TAN may have a role in identifying deficits in otolith signal processing. Our portable shroud appears to sufficiently enclose subjects in an environment dark enough to ensure accuracy. These data are some of the most exciting of the results, as they suggest our VAN and TAN tests of ocular conjugacy can be used to monitor sensorimotor function across different gravitational levels. Additionally, this finding existed in both experienced and naïve flyers, suggesting VAN and TAN have good generalizability regardless of experience.

Head Impulse Dynamic Visual Acuity (hiDVA): For the hiDVA test, the subject wears a rate sensor while holding a computer tablet about 18" from the face. Static visual acuity was measured first, followed by dynamic (active head impulse) visual acuity during pitch and yaw head rotation with near (0.45m) and far (2m) targets.

During each test, subjects viewed optotypes (Landolt C) randomly rotated by 0, 90, 180, or 270 degrees) with Snellen acuity levels between 20/200 and 20/4 (far) or 20/17 (near). For the dynamic component of the test, the letter only flashed when head velocity was > 120 d/s for 80 ms duration. At each acuity level, subjects were

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Special Edition on Mars Analogous Mission presented with five optotypes and asked via forced choice paradigm to identify the orientation.

Investigators conducted validation experiments using the head impulse DVA test to ensure the body worn sensor would communicate with the tablet using Bluetooth to trigger the flashing optotype. Next, they measured static (head still) and dynamic (active head impulse) visual acuity during pitch and yaw head rotation with near (0.45m) and far (2m) targets in 6 healthy controls 4 patients with vestibular hypofunction.

They found: 1. Patients with vestibular hypofunction had worse DVA for near targets compared with healthy controls (p<0.05).

2. Head motion at near distances confers worse visual acuity than that at far targets in healthy controls (p <0.001).

3. A tablet version of computerized Dynamic Visual Acuity test appears effective at identifying gaze instability.

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Summary of HERA and NEEMO Flight Analogs HERA Results: The procedures and operations were more efficiently carried out as each of the four HERA missions investigators participated in transpired. Each of the HERA crews was able to complete the oculomotor and gait/postural measures they collected. They learned that the operations manual must be very terse and easy to understand. They also learned it is critical to have interaction with the crew during the mission, even if on delay. They realized the importance of ensuring a completely dark environment while completing the oculomotor portions of SARA (i.e. light â&#x20AC;&#x2122;noiseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; from emergency lighting can affect results).

Scientifically, the initial results suggest some oculomotor and gait metrics may exhibit changes over time, perhaps related the confinement of such an analog or with increased mission duration. Further analyses and additional subjects are needed for statistical significance.

NEEMO 18 Results: The NEEMO 18 crew was generally successful in self-administering SARA tests. Some of the oculomotor data was lost due to improper initialization of data recordings. This appears related to poor emphasis by investigators during limited training sessions and limited time for crew to read detailed procedures during mission. Investigators will need to automate this feature for future missions. The crew recommended minor shroud improvements for increased comfort, which have since been implemented. The SARA Bluetooth sensors operated without interference from other Aquarius electronics.

Using Real-Time Lexical Indicators to Detect Performance Decrements in Spaceflight Teams: A Methodology to Dynamically Monitor Cognitive, Emotional, and Social Mechanisms that Influence Performance The NASA mission environment is by definition a harsh, dangerous, and unforgiving, yet personnel must be prepared to operate efficiently in this setting. The effects of extreme environments on performance are profound and well documented. Studies have recorded numerous cases of degradation in intellectual performance, emotional instability, somatic changes, and motivational decline. The failure to consider and prepare for these stress effects may exact a very high price. That is, stress-induced decrements in performance are most likely to occur when they can be least tolerated, during critical mission situations. Furthermore, the potential for mission decrement is likely to increase as crews become larger, missions become longer, and flight crew personnel become more heterogeneous in skills and background. Therefore, the requirement exists to develop non-obtrusive means of detecting and mitigating cognitive performance deficits, stress, fatigue, anxiety, and depression in the space flight operational setting. One problem with many existing assessment methods is that most require direct observation of behavior or performance or self-assessment by a pen and paper-type instrument. The requirement to assess individual and team functioning "at a distance" suggests the potential efficacy of a methodology to assess cognitive and emotional state in real-time from ongoing or spontaneous verbal output.

The proposed research will result in the development of a methodology to assess cognitive and emotional state "at a distance" though spontaneous verbal output in real-time communications. One product of this research will be a real-time assessment tool to detect cognitive performance deficits, stress, fatigue, anxiety, and depression in the space flight operational setting. Subject to empirical confirmation, this tool would provide an unobtrusive, real-time indicator of individual and team functioning, as well as provide guidance for interventions to mitigate performance deficits. The specific aims of this project are to develop (1) a methodology to assess cognitive and emotional state "at a distance" through spontaneous verbal output in real-time communications and (2) a real time assessment tool to detect cognitive performance deficits, stress, fatigue, anxiety, and depression in the space flight operational setting. Investigators seek to provide answers by adopting a multi-level approach with the following specific aims: design, develop, and validate a theoretically-driven, empirically-based methodology to dynamically monitor cognitive, emotional, and social mechanisms that influence performance.

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Special Edition on Mars Analogous Mission The primary objective of the study is to test whether lexical analysis of ongoing verbal communication can provide an accurate means to monitor emotional state in space flight. In this test, investigators hope to show that assessing stress via lexical analysis can provide results consistent with currently existing pen-and-paper types of assessment measures.

All participants will complete up to three days of pre-mission activities (i.e., baseline data collection, training, informed consent), a 7 or 14 day in phase simulated mission in NASAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA) facility, and up to three days of post mission activities. A simulation scenario will be designed by a mission planner to create a series of space flight/space exploration-like activities to be conducted by the crew. The test subjects will participate of these activities and the tests associated with each study objective (for example, cognitive tests, questionnaires, surveys, pre and post-mission debriefs).

During the simulated scenario, participants will be asked to fill out the three following questionnaires: Stress - To examine participantsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; perceived stress, investigators will administer a seven item scale. Participants will rate the extent to which they felt excited, pressured, tense, nervous, stressed, distracted, and anxious; with 1 = not at all perceived stress and 7 = high perceived stress.

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Affect - To examine affect, investigators will administer the International Positive and Negative Affect Schedule Short Form (I-PANAS-SF). This measure contains 10-items examining participant rating of how upset, hostile, alert, ashamed, inspired, nervous, determined, attentive, afraid, and active the feel. Task Cohesion - Task cohesion will be investigated by a four item scale measuring task cohesion.

RESULTS: This experiment is currently in progress.

HERA Campaign 2 HERA Campaign 2 consists of four 14-day missions to be implemented per the following schedule: Mission 1 January 30 - February 9, 2015; Mission 2 April 10-23, 2015; Mission 3 June 12 - 25, 2015 and Mission 4 August 14-27, 2015. During each of these missions, up to 13 investigations were conducted.

Advanced Acoustic Monitoring Characterization Study (A2M) Noise exposures pose concerns for space human factors and habitability, such as possible reductions in hearing sensitivity, disruptions of crew sleep, interference with speech intelligibility and voice communications, interference with crew task performance, and reduced alarm audibility. The main objective of this study is to characterize the acoustic environment, measure crew noise exposure and characterize the advanced acoustic monitoring system in the Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA).

Each of the four subjects will participate on a 24-hour crew-worn acoustic dosimetry session. Sound Level Meters (SLMs) will be mounted on the walls of the HERA. The A2M Coordinator will be connected to a PI provided laptop with USB connector. The A2M Coordinator will communicate with the SLMs and acoustic dosimeter wirelessly. The A2M Router will be connected to the electrical outlet with a USB connector cable. The A2M Router will communicate between the A2M Coordinator and the SLMs and acoustic dosimeter wirelessly.

RESULTS: This experiment is in progress.

Automation in Procedures: Guidelines for Allocating Tasks for Performance(NCC958HFP02803) As crewed missions move deeper into space and communication latency increases, strategies for carrying out tasks must shift. Astronauts will be unable to depend on real-time support from flight controllers; controllers will not be able to perform procedures in the same way they do for the International Space Station (ISS), nor to advise on changed applicability of procedures in real-time. This change threatens to increase astronaut workload, decrease efficiency, and increase the risk of suboptimal task execution.

Automation is an important resource for adapting to this altered environment. To help rather than harm, however, automation must be effectively integrated with the humans it supports. The proposed research will 1) identify and refine candidate strategies for allocating tasks to automation and the factors when guidelines apply, 2) define effectiveness measures for these task allocation strategies, 3) conduct empirical assessment of the effectiveness of human-automation integration based on the proposed allocation strategies, and 4) integrate findings as proposed task allocation strategies with automation.

The approach to automation investigates the use of procedures as the basis of automation. By using a humanoriented procedure to organize automation, automation is designed to be more comprehensible to operators.

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Special Edition on Mars Analogous Mission For procedure automation, the actions in a procedure are enabled for automatic execution when instrumentation is available to perform the action. The degree of automation can be varied by changing which actions are designated for automatic execution. Strategies for determining which steps should be automated range from pre-defined allocations to flexible adjustment while the procedure is being executed. It is not clear how these strategies affect human-automation performance. Research is needed to determine how these different allocation strategies affect task performance and learnability. Additionally it is not clear how robust these strategies are to changes in situation that invalidate the procedure as written.

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The investigatorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; aim is identification of several candidate guidelines and factors that define effective task allocation strategies, within their procedure-automation approach. These guidelines consider where benefits may be greatest and how automation can be structured to realize the potential benefits. However, the ability to automate will depend upon reliably determining whether a procedure should be applied exactly in the circumstances and, if not, how to provide human skills to ensure appropriate application. The way in which human and automated actions are coordinated also needs to make the work organization meaningful to humans, as well as reliably executable by the automation. Specifying how to identify meaningful units of work that serve as the foundation for coordination between human and automated actions is a core part of the research.

Ground TRACLabs and its partners from NASA and San Jose State University propose to evaluate human performance for different task allocation strategies for procedure automation and use the results to articulate a set of allocation strategies. They will define operational scenarios for the evaluation, including a set of multi-step procedures and simulation that works with these procedures. They will provide procedure automation software for executing these procedures on the simulation. They will perform ground-based human subject testing where subjects use the procedure automation to perform the procedures. They will select the task allocation strategies for evaluation that include both predefined and flexible allocation of tasks. They will measure and analyze human and automation performance for each of these strategies under both nominal and off-nominal circumstances. They will use experimental results to derive strategies for task allocation that are an important step toward developing technology to guide the allocation for tasks among humans and automation.

NASAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA) These experiments will evaluate partial automation strategies developed in Year 2 during longer duration experiments under more flight-like conditions with participants more similar to astronauts. Each participant will perform procedures both manually and partially automated during 7 one-hour sessions per mission. Performance measures include completion time, errors, and workload. Performance under both conditions will be compared, within subject. Investigators will update the procedure software for these experiments, based on Year 2 findings. They will document their findings about using units of work in procedures as the basis of automation, including strategies for allocating tasks to automation and techniques for evaluating strategy effectiveness.

RESULTS: This experiment is in progress. However, preliminary results are available.

Investigators analyzed data collected in Year 1 comparing manual execution of the new procedure system (PRIDE Interface) to a system analogous to procedures for ISS (Legacy Interface). They assessed whether manual performance with PRIDE would be as good as or better than with the legacy system. This lays the foundation for integrating automated execution into the flow of procedures designed for humans. They found speed and accuracy of manual procedure execution was better using PRIDE interface over Legacy interface. When using PRIDE interface, less than 3% of procedures had errors. For Legacy Interface, 33% of procedures had errors.

Using PRIDE interface took less time than Legacy interface for all trials. Investigators also analyzed Year 1 data where participants used PRIDE procedure automation. These results informed a redesign of the PRIDE software for procedure automation that is being evaluated in Year 2 experiments. Using the original PRIDE interface it was hard to predict what can be automated, what should be automated, and the consequences of attempting to automate elements that cannot or should not be automated. Methods to identify what cannot or should not be automated were an important direction for development. Support for constructing and checking an advance automation plan also was identified as valuable. Automation plans may be more complex than was easily supported by the original approach of automating between the focus bar and a breakpoint. Users may find it useful to specify spans of procedure lines to automate. Since steps are a central unit of work in procedures, supporting step-level automation control may be valuable. Procedure technology was demonstrated to four astronauts on the User Panel. Crew Factors scores were all high. Systems score were high or medium.

Impact of key findings The identification of strategies for allocating tasks to automation and techniques for assessing strategy effectiveness directly addresses the HRP Risk of Inadequate Design of Human and Automation/Robotic Integration, Gap

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Special Edition on Mars Analogous Mission SHFE-HARI-01. Investigators observed three models of automation use when performing procedures, which varied according to the style and effort spent planning what actions to automate.

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1. Minimal planners spent no time planning automation and relied on the software to stop automatic execution when it reached a non-automatable instruction. This model incurs no cost to plan automation, but is the least operationally flexible of these strategies.

2. Incremental planners automated one span of actions at a time, interleaving automation planning with procedure execution. This model is suited to simple automation plans with few handovers, or situations where the decision of which tasks to automate can be altered by the effects of intervening procedure actions.

3. Predictive planners built a plan for automating the entire procedure prior to taking any action in the procedure. This model is suited to situations where deciding what to automate is based on information known prior to execution. This predictability means that it may be useful to save automation plans for reuse when executing the procedure later. Observation suggested that human performance is impacted by the frequency and number of handovers between automation and manual execution, and the time between these handovers. Investigators are studying techniques to characterize use of handovers in a task allocation strategy to provide insight into its effectiveness. Partial automation of procedures can make it possible for the user to perform secondary tasks during periods of automation. They are investigating techniques to assess how well an allocation strategy supports multitasking, including measuring supervision costs to assess how independent automation is from its supervisor. For an allocation strategy to support effective multitasking, these costs should be low relative to time made available for a secondary task.

Biomarkers as Predictors of Resiliency and Susceptibility to Stress in Space Flight(NNX14AN49G) This study will determine the predictive validity of a set of relevant, valid and reliable biomarkers for various neurobehavioral outcomes for distinguishing those who are more resilient versus those who are more susceptible to the adverse effects of the combination of high performance stress and acute sleep loss-two conditions commonly experienced in space flight. The deliverable will be the development of a countermeasure (set of biomarkers) to provide mission planners and system developers with individualized strategies for crew resources, and for mitigating stress and other behavioral health and performance risks during short-duration and long-duration space flight.

Neurobehavioral decrements in space flight are due to operational and physiological stress related to fatiguing workload and work schedules (e.g., slam shifts), and to reduced sleep quality and duration. Sleep loss produces fatigue, variability in behavioral alertness, deficits in attention, memory and executive functions, reduced mood-affect regulation, and ultimately increased accidents and injuries. Stress is also associated with neurobehavioral changes. Increased workload and performance demands (i.e., more difficult cognitive tasks, with greater time pressure and with negative feedback on performance) produce higher ratings of stress, task difficulty, effort required, frustration, distress, and total mood disturbance.

Specific Aims: 1.Determine whether candidate biomarkers, including cardiovascular measures, change in response to high performance demands and acute sleep loss stressors.

2.Evaluate the predictive validity of a set of candidate biomarkers, including cardiovascular measures, for neurobehavioral susceptibility to the stressors in Aim 1.

3.Identify candidate biomarkers that differentiate susceptible and resilient individuals in responses to the stressors in Aim 1.

4.Determine the stability of candidate biomarkers from pre-mission to in-mission baseline and from in-mission recovery to post-mission.

Investigators will conduct a ground-based experiment on N=32 healthy men and women (ages 26-55) in the HERA facility (short-duration analog) and on N=6 healthy men and women (ages 21-65) in the HI-SEAS facility (long-duration analog) to determine the predictive validity of a set of relevant, valid, and reliable biomarkers for distinguishing those who are more resilient versus those who are more susceptible to the adverse neurobehavË&#x161; two ioral effects of the combination of high performance demands and total sleep deprivation (TSD) stressorsU conditions commonly experienced in space flight. These biomarkers include the following: cardiovascular measures (blood pressure, heart rate and heart rate variability, stroke volume and cardiac output), salivary cortisol, catecholamines (dopamine, noradrenaline, and adrenaline), an inflammatory marker (C Reactive Protein; CRP), metabolomic markers (via unbiased metabolomics), and microRNAs (epigenetic markers).

The project deliverable will be a countermeasure (set of diverse biomarkers) for distinguishing those who are more resilient versus those who are more susceptible to the adverse neurobehavioral effects of high performance demands and sleep loss stressors. If valid markers of such susceptibility can be found, it will be possible to optimize and individualize crew resources, and mitigate stress and other behavioral health and performance

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Special Edition on Mars Analogous Mission risks autonomously during long-duration space flight.

The neurobehavioral testing that subjects will perform will consist of tests measuring reaction time, throughput and memory and subjective scales measuring sleepiness, fatigue, vigor and mood (Profile of Mood States, Visual Analog Scale, and Karolinska Sleepiness Scale). In addition, subjects will wear an actiwatch for the duration of the mission to monitor sleep-wake behavior. Subjects wear the actiwatch 24 hours a day (i.e., day and night) except when showering.

RESULTS: This experiment is in progress.

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Dynamic Team Role Allocation in Long Duration, Exploration Missions: Identification of Roles, Triggers, and Measurement Tools (NNX14AM73G) Long-duration, exploration missions present a unique environment characterized by many stressors (e.g., social isolation, danger, confinement, interpersonal dynamics, periods of over/under stimulation), with little ability to escape. Research has found that within such environments interpersonal dynamics occupy a key role in effective functioning. While the last few years has witnessed an increase in research examining the composition requirements of high performance teams, little work has examined these issues in light of teams embedded in long-duration, exploration missions. Therefore, investigators describe a program of work which addresses Team Gaps 1, 4, and 8 in NASAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Human Research Roadmap.

They seek to answer the following questions with regard to long-duration, exploration missions: (1) what are the key social and team technical (task) roles which influence team function, (2) what are the behavioral and communicative markers which can be used to assess the degree to which key identified social and team technical roles are being fulfilled; (3) what contextual aspects serve to trigger a need for the dynamic shift of social roles; (5) what are the optimal combinations (i.e., profiles, algorithms) of social roles for the maintenance and regulation of team functions; (6) what are the markers that can be used to select for those most likely to fit social profiles and how do these profiles change across the duration of the mission (i.e., the teamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s life cycle).

In answering these questions the investigators seek to provide a series of scientifically-grounded and experimentally validated taxonomies, guidelines, and measurement tools for team selection/composition. In exploring these questions, the investigators take a multi-pronged approach consisting of analysis of archival data (e.g., astronaut diaries, historical accounts of teams operating in ICE, prior collected UCF astronaut interviews), scientific literatures on group dynamics, personality, team roles, stress, and diversity, interviews, and experimentation in NASA analogs.

APPROACH: Participants will be asked to complete several types of questionnaires: Prior to the start of the mission, participants will be administered individual difference measures, such as a demographic survey, personality measures, and measures of collective orientation.

During the mission, participants will complete the following: (1) Role questionnaire which assesses the task and social roles present during the prior mission segment.

(2) Measures assessing teamwork quality, team satisfaction, and team effectiveness.

In addition, investigators will collect audio and video recordings in order to access communication logs from points where key triggers and role shifts occur (approximately 30 minutes prior to 30 minutes afterward). This will allow them to establish a situational baseline as well as information about what occurs after the role shift.

At the end of the mission, participants will complete a survey that examines the task and social roles that occurred throughout the mission. At the end of the mission, participants will complete a survey that examines the task and social roles that occurred throughout the mission.

RESULTS: This experiment is in progress.

Leadership-Followership: Moving Beyond Traditional Leadership to Build Highly Functioning Autonomous Teams (NNX14AK54G) The long-duration of space exploration missions (and relative isolation) makes it imperative that teams have the leadership capacity to address the temporal dynamics of diversity and the rifts that can occur. Leadership

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Special Edition on Mars Analogous Mission has been shown to be a critical component of team effectiveness and adaptation. However, leadership may be even more important within autonomous teams as it serves to create the shared behavior, affect, and cognition that allows teams to adapt and be effective within complex environments.

The investigators argue that a particular form of leadership (i.e., shared or distributed leadership) is needed to produce highly functioning teams that are capable operating under varying degrees of autonomy. Shared leadership has been defined as a form of distributed leadership where the transference of leadership functions across team members occurs such that member strengths (i.e., knowledge, skills, attitudes, perspectives, contacts) are capitalized on as dictated by either internal or external demands. The current effort is therefore designed to investigate the dynamic relationship between leaders and followers through the theoretical lens of shared or distributed leadership.

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Investigators aim to investigate the following with respect to long-duration, exploration teams: (1) What leadership forms best enable team autonomy; (2) What are the enablers (e.g., team climate, knowledge, behavior, attitudes) to horizontal peer-to-peer leadership?; (3) What is the role that personality occupies in predicting who is likely to take on particular leadership roles and the form of leadership that emerges, and (4) How does this change across the teamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s life span and autonomy level? Research conducted with both ground based laboratory settings as well as field data collected from analogs is expected to lead to critical information which can support the development of necessary countermeasures for more effectively enabling LDDEM leadership roles for both ground and flight crews.

The aim of this research is determine how shared leadership behaviors impact team processes and performance under long-duration and isolated contexts. Investigators are also interested in identifying the antecedents (e.g., personality) of shared leadership emergence, how shared leadership enables team autonomy, and the dynamic nature of shared leadership behaviors over the course of a teamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lifespan.

Investigators will administer a brief survey pre-mission to assess key individual difference characteristics that may impact the propensity to engage in collective leadership (e.g., tapping personality, motivation to engage in leadership, and collective orientation). During interaction they will deliver self report questionnaires after key events (i.e., autonomy changes) - these may include a sociometric measure of leadership and measures of,teamwork, autonomy, interdependence. affect, and team effectiveness.

Some of these measures are delivered after key events during the day while others are given at the end of the day after key events. Investigators will record and analyze the verbal output of the crew during the mission, focusing their analysis on the manifestation of leadership. Some of the communication data will be analyzed for vocal intensity which has been shown to be an indicator of leadership, a smaller set which revolves around the trigger events (autonomy shifts) will be analyzed for leadership structure, form, and behavior via process coding on the backend.

RESULTS: This experiment is in progress.

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Mars-500 The aim of the project is investigation of the system "man - environment" and obtaining of experimental data about the state of health and working capacity of the crew staying for a long time in conditions of isolation in hermetically confined environment of limited space during simulation of the main peculiarities of the Martian flight (over-duration, autonomy, changed conditions of communication with Earth - communication delay, limited consumable resources).

Among the tasks of the project is the task to determine whether such a flight is possible from the point of view of psychology and physiology (at the admissible level of simulation) and to work out definite requirements for the real expeditionary spaceship that will fly to Mars.

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"Mars-500" project includes a series of experiments simulating these or those aspects of the given flight. The main part is a series of the experiments on long-term isolation in conditions of the specially built ground-based experimental facility. It includes: 1.14-day isolation (completed in November 2007) 2.105-day isolation (completed in July 2009) 3.520-day isolation (April 2010 - October 2011)

Medical-technical experimental facility. Main view.

Medical-technical facility of SSC RF - IBMP RAS is meant for simulation of conditions of life and activity of the crew, that are maximally close to the conditions of real spaceships, for support of conduction of the experiment simulating a space flight, including interplanetary one, with the duration of not fewer than 500 days with the crew consisting of 4-6 people.

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Time Effects, Cultural Influences, and Individual Differences in Crew Behavior During the Mars-500 Experiment A mission to Mars would last more than 500 d. During interplanetary missions, both the time factor and the human factor are of prime importance in the adaptive process, which implies a temporal dynamic. This is a line of investigations in psychological, sociological, and ethological studies of crew behavior in an isolated and confined environment (ICE). Preparation for long-term space stays has been previously conducted for up to 150 d onboard the International Space Station (ISS) and up to 439 d onboard the Russian orbital station (Mir).

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The Mars-500 experiment is an unprecedented program for understanding the time effects, cultural influences, and individual differences in an ICE. The Mars-500 program simulates three phases of a mission to Mars: a 250-d interplanetary flight from Earth to Mars (first phase), a 30-d orbital stay with a 15-d Mars landing (second phase), and a 240-d interplanetary flight from Mars back to Earth (third phase). The duration of the full experiment was 520 d.

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The Mars-500 international crew was composed of three Russians, two Europeans, and one Chinese(N = 6).

The subjects were all men aged between 26 and 38 yr with different functions: one commander, two physicians, and three engineers. Their motivation for participation in the experiment was mostly an interest in manned space missions and space exploration. In the selection procedure, there was a requirement of speaking English or Russian, not necessarily both. Aptitude and group dynamics during training were evaluated by psychologists.

Team-building activities were an important part of the training, and the crew regarded them as useful. Otherwise, socialization between the crew would have been reduced to payload training, which would present a limited spectrum of interaction. Each crewmember provided informed consent to participate in the Mars-500 experiment.

Results Authors have chosen the Correspondence Factorial Analysis (CFA) to point out nonverbal and verbal behaviors relevant to multifactorial factors and possible synergies of time, culture, and individual effects. CFA is applied to contingency tables and decomposes the Chi-squared statistic with the occurrences of behavioral events into orthogonal factors. CFA tests the hypothesis that the events are associated with specific factors on defined axes.

The contribution of the axes is evaluated in percentage.

The distinctive actions and interactions (Fig. 1) in absolute frequency of occurrence were thus analyzed with a CFA for determining the time effect on the behavior. Authors made observations over the days of the Mars-500 experiment. The contributing factor (axis F1: 55%) may be defined as "time axis" that draws days clusters (c1 to c4) on the basis of nonverbal behavior occurrences: (c1) Day 159 and Day 355 appear as single temporal points; (c2) Day 19 to Day 230 delimit a full main period; (c3) Day 299 to Day 411 delimit another full main period; and (c4) Day 257 and Day 513 are included as specific temporal points (midmission and end of mission). The results show that personal actions and visual inter actions are included in the first full main period (i.e., during the first phase of the mission) and associated to Day 33, Day 89, Day 131, and Day 243. In other terms, the first phase of the mission is characterized by frequent personal actions such as moving the head, moving the arms, changing of postures, and also visual interactions such as looking at one crewmember or at the whole crew.

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Facial expressions and collateral acts are included in the other full main period (i.e.,during the third phase of the mission) and associated to Day 496, Day 483, Day 454, and Day 320. In other terms, frequent smiles, laugher, and small movements that express the feeling of the crewmembers characterize the third phase of the mission. Object interactions and body interactions were not time-dependent.

The spatial positions of the subjects were drawn at the table setting around which they chose a seat located in a fixed place. The subjects sat at the discussion table before knowing the topics. As a result, what was driving the verbal interactions was mostly the language using Russian or English. Crew relationships are presented in percentage of place preference related to the occurrence of language use(Fig. 2). The seating did not change for 93 - 100% of the observations days. Authors observed dominant Russian interactions on one side of the table and dominant English interactions on the other side. The spatial positions of the Russian crewmembers are at places P1, P6, and P5, and the non-Russian crewmembers are at places P2, P3, and P4. We could imagine a virtual cultural line separating them with place and language preferences. The results suggest that the verbal communications are culture-dependent. The subjects at P1 and P2 have the most active communicative behaviors with the crew as a whole.

The verbal interactions between the subjects (Fig. 3), in absolute frequency of occurrence, were analyzed with a CFA for defining individual differences. Subjects are identified by their positions at the table to preserve anonymity. Authors observed (d1) a central multinational crewmember relationship that involved subjects P2, P4, and P6. The two axes both combine the individual and cultural contributing factors on the basis of verbal behavior occurrences. The CFA distinguishes dyadic interactions and unilateral interactions. Dyadic relation-

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Special Edition on Mars Analogous Mission ships are those where subjects are both transmitters and transceivers within the verbal interaction. Unilateral relationships are those where subjects are either transmitters (triangle) or transceivers (diamonds), but not both. The results show (d2) a dyadic interaction between subject P1 and subject P5 with the contribution of the axis F1(39%) that may be defined as the "individual axis."

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In other terms, subject P1 prefers to speak with subject P5 and vice-versa. Results show (d3) a unilateral interaction of subject P2 toward subjects P3 and P4 (non-Russian crewmembers) with the contribution of the axis F2 (26%) that may be defined as the "cultural axis." In other terms, subject P2 prefers to speak with subject P3 and P4 who prefer to listen to subject P2. Subject P3 did not appear to have close relationships as a transmitter (Chinese crewmember). This emphasizes that verbal inter actions are built according to the individuals and in synergy with the cultural backgrounds.

Spontaneous behaviors are revealed during daily life activities, such as breakfast. Author found specific nonverbal behaviors associated with specific days during the simulated mission. Specifics mean that certain actions, interactions, and expressions occur at certain days that delimit nominal periods of a Mars mission profile. Personal actions and visual interactions are frequent during the 250-d interplanetary flight from Earth to Mars, whereas facial expressions and collateral acts are more frequent during the 240-d interplanetary flight from Mars back to Earth. The first phase might be interpreted as a period of common activity and normal feelings and the third phase as a period of good spirit and fatigue or stress. The second phase is about midmission days with the crew separation. This phase, when the orbital crew and the landing crew are split, was expected to be a traumatic period. This was not the case as the regrouped crew continued working just as usual. Critical days emerged that the crewmembers reported as being difficult, such as Day 159 (after approximately 6 mo of isolation and confinement) and Day 355 (after approximately 12 mo of isolation and confi nement).

They are not therefore nominal periods and are to be considered with psychological issues, social issues, or medical issues such as high stress, missing family, and low physical activities. Countermeasures could be expected on these days of a Mars mission profile. Day 257 and Day 513 are distinctive points because they correspond to midmission and near the end of the Mars-500 experiment.

These findings support authors hypothesis that time effect on the behavioral performance of a crew during very long experience in an ICE is linked to both periodic and punctuated adaptive states.

Group discussions focused on an imposed topic to bring together all the crewmembers and generate communications between them. The topics were shared in English and Russian versions. They were neutral and selected accordingly to the periods of the simulation offering possibilities to the crew to cooperate or to solve a problem, for instance, making a decision in extreme conditions. In this task, spatial positions and languages used during the verbal interactions complete the ethological data. They highlight that communications in English and in Russian involve prevalent languages associated with place preferences and preferential relationships among individuals.

Authors found evidence of crewmembersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; separation and interaction according to their nationalities, with distinction between Russian and non-Russian including Chinese backgrounds. This supports authors hypothesis that the international characteristics of the crew reinforce the cultural influences on their behavioral expressions.Authors detected this impact during recent short-term simulations at the Mars Research Desert Station.

Nevertheless, verbal behavior does not appear to depend only upon culture because a Russian and a European were the two most active subjects.

Multinational interactions, dyadic interaction, and unilateral interactions result in different relationships. They support hypothesis that there are individual differences in the interactions between the crewmembers with preferential verbal communications. Our findings illustrate the major impacts of different tendencies of active communicative behavior among different crewmembers. We can consider each individual as a factor contributing to diversifying a monotonous social context that extends over a long-duration mission.

Microbial ecology of confined habitats (MICHA) The closed environment of a spacecraft on a long-term manned mission or a planetary habitat is a very special environment for microorganisms with a direct or indirect impact on the health, safety or performance of astronauts.

Aim of the MICHA project

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• Characterization of the evolution of microbial communities in confined environments in view of long-term manned space flight.

• Testing of new microbial and nutraceutical products to support the human intestinal microflora (UNITUS).

• Testing of new eco-compatible microbial products to prevent biocontamination of space materials (UNITUS).

• Testing the resistance of selected spore-forming and/or heat- tolerant microbes in confined environment with respect to planetary protection requirements.

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Sampling program and sample collection Sampling of crew, surfaces and air.

Samples are taken by the crew members and stored for analysis by the scientific teams (outside the habitat).

The first batch of frozen samples was delivered to DLR and UNITUS in January 2011.

Air sampling and analysis - cultivation According to ECSS-Q-ST-70-55C G.1 Air sampling assay Sampling of 300 l air with 30 l/min on a gelatine filter exposed horizontally once per month at 9 locations inside the Mars 500 facility.

Storage and transport of gelatine filters at -80◦ C Placement of filters on R2A plates Incubation at 32◦ C for 72h and colony counting

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Characterisation of selected microbial isolates • Mesophilic aerobic bacteria isolated after heat shock • Analysis of the physiological potential of spore-forming and/or heat tolerant microorganisms by resistance tests – ionizing radiation and mars-like UV radiation – oxidative agents – desiccation – freeze-thaw cycles, investigating diurnal and seasonal Mars surface temperature variations – antibiotics • Planetary protection concerns: – Could these isolates survive the long travel to Mars as hitchhikers?

– Could these isolates survive on Mars?

• Medical concerns: – Does the resistance of these isolates against antibiotics change during a long-term mission?

These investigations will support the development of adequate protocols and equipment to prevent, detect and counteract hazardous microbial contaminations / growth during long-term isolation in space and on Earth.

A total of 234 species of bacteria and microscopic fungi were identified in the Mir environment. The bacterial flora consisted of 108 species, whereas the fungal flora included 126 species.Read More in previous publication.

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Effects of 520 Days of Confinement (Mars500) on the Assessment of Affective Stimuli and Stage Alteration in Mood and Plasma Hormone Levels Previous studies have found evidence of decrement in the variables of cognitive performance , team cohesion , locomotor function , circadian rhythm and sleep , etc. Moreover, the strong association between the function of the neuroendocrine system and emotion processing and stress coping has also been observed . To the best of our knowledge, however, the effect of long-term confinement on the assessment of affective stimuli has not yet been reported.

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A cluster of symptoms has been described as the winter-over syndrome, consisting of sleep disturbance, impaired cognition, negative affect, and interpersonal tension and conflict experienced by people on polar expeditions in the Antarctic . Several studies have noted that these symptoms seem to increase after the midpoint of an expedition and are reduced toward the end of the expedition. This pattern is known as the third-quarter phenomenon, and it seems to be due to the psychosocial factors rather than the environment. It refers to the psycho-physiological changes over a period of time in space as well as in Antarctica, particularly with the presence of increased mental issues during the third quarter in the company. This phenomenon most likely results from the realization that the mission is only half completed, and a long period of isolation still awaits.

The Mars500 project, which simulated an interplanetary trip between the Earth and Mars, provided an outstanding opportunity to research the changes in psychological adaptation over 520 days of confinement and isolation. To investigate the emotional response over time, authors selected affective pictures from International Affective Picture System (IAPS) as visual affective stimuli. The subjective questionnaire called Profiles of Mood State (POMS) was also performed to acquire data about the crewâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mental state. Furthermore, authors collected and analyzed four types of plasma hormones: cortisol, 5-hydroxy tryptamine (5-HT), dopamine (DA) and norepinephrine (NE) over the course of the confinement. Intriguingly, this study identified a positive rating bias toward unpleasant stimuli and a stage-changing pattern in the psychological adaptation of the Mars500 crew.

This research was conducted in accordance with the principles expressed in the Declaration of Helsinki. The ethical committee of the Institute of Biomedical Problems approved this study, and all Mars500 crewmembers gave their written informed consent.

Tests International Affective Pictures System(IAPS) The International Affective Pictures System (IAPS) is a specific image set containing various pictures depicting snakes, insects, accidents, illness, puppies, babies, and landscape scenes, among others. Each picture must be rated on two dimensions, valence and arousal. Valence means the intrinsic attractiveness (positive) or aversiveness (negative) of stimuli, and arousal means a psychophysiological state of being awake (low) or reactive (high) to stimuli. In IAPS,the valence rating ranges from unpleasant (low pleasure) to pleasant (high pleasure), and arousal rating ranges from calm (low arousal) to excited (high arousal). The collections of norms for affective pictures are useful for selecting suitable affective stimuli and for making comparisons . With regard to the safety and maneuverability, authors chose IAPS to study affective assessment in the present study.

In total, there were 295 different affective pictures selected from the IAPS, depicting 61 pleasant events (i.e., attractive infants, family), 61 unpleasant events (i.e., snakes, bleeding, catastrophe) and 173 neutral events (i.e., neutral face, household objects), for which the levels of pleasantness differed significantly depending on the

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Special Edition on Mars Analogous Mission normative valence. Based on the method of exposure, these pictures were divided into two groups: Repetitive Group (RG) and Novel Group (NG).

In this study, there were 8 sessions of image tests in all, each of which contained one RG and one NG. The RG comprised 15 pictures of equal size and composition (5 pleasant, 5 unpleasant and 5 neutral stimuli) that were presented repeatedly every time. For the NG, 35 different, novel pictures (7 pleasant, 7 unpleasant and 21 neutral) were randomly arranged in each session and mixed with pictures repeated from the RG. Therefore, each crewmember was required to evaluate 50 affective images on two dimensions. Both valence and arousal were rated on a ninepoint scale (valence: ’1’= lowest pleasure, ’9’ = highest pleasure; arousal: ’1’ = lowest arousal, ’9’= high arousal). There was no difference between the normative valences of RG and NG. The normative arousal of pleasant pictures in RG was lower than that in NG (table 1).

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Profile of Mood States (POMS) The subjective questionnaire called Profile of Mood States (POMS) was selected to measure psychological status of Mars500 crew. This instrument has also been used in some Antarctic explorations as well as in general population studies due to its high test-retest and internal consistency reliability . All crewmembers were required to finish this 5-point scale self-report questionnaire (’1’ =lowest level,’5’ =highest level) for each testing. Mood data on 6 factors were obtained from POMS: tension-anxiety (T), depression-dejection (D), anger-hostility (A), fatigue-inertia (F), confusion-bewilderment (C), and vigor-activity (V). A Total Mood Disturbance (TMD) score was derived by summing the negative scores of five subscales (T, D, A, F, and C) and subtracting the unique positive score of V. Plasma hormone sampling To investigate the changes in plasma hormone levels, 7 mL of peripheral whole blood cells were extracted from each crewmember at approximately 7:00-8:00 in the morning, before breakfast. Two crewmembers with medical training took charge of blood sampling. After extraction, whole blood cells were immediately treated with EDTA as an anticoagulant, transferred outside of the module via an air-lock and centrifuged (at 3000 rpm for 15 min at 4◦ C) to collect the plasma. Of the obtained plasma, only 0.5 mL was used for the detection of cortisol, 5-hydroxytryptamine, dopamine and norepinephrine concentrations. The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kits (R & B, USA) were used according to the manufacturer’s instructions. For assaying each parameter, each of the six samples was tested only once during the ELISA experiment process due to the limited amount of plasma available for this study.

Results Changes in IAPS Positive bias on valence rating. In NG (figure 1.A), ANOVA on the mean valence rating showed a significant main effect for ’pictures’ (F 2,10 = 14.507, p<0.01). The rating for pleasant pictures was significant higher than that for unpleasant pictures (p= 0.026) and neutral pictures (p<0.01). The effect of ’mission days’ showed no significance. The interaction of ’mission days * pictures’ had a significant effect (F 14,70 = 4.24, p =0.017).

Although it seemed that the unpleasant pictures rating on day 421 was the highest over time, post-hoc tests exhibited no significance. Post-hoc comparisons showed a significant difference between the unpleasant pictures rating and pleasant pictures rating over time except on day 366 (p= 0.06) and day 421 (p= 0.052). The shrinking gap between the assessment of unpleasant and pleasant pictures revealed a bias in which the crew tended to assign positive ratings to the unpleasant pictures at those times.

For the pleasant and neutral pictures, this positive bias did not appear. Regarding the impact of individual difference on small n= 6, authors analyzed each crewmember’s data separately (figure 2). Authors found that this specific change of unpleasant pictures rating in NG was obvious among all crewmembers except ’E’ (figure 2.E). Therefore, this positive bias on valence rating was not due to individual difference.

In RG, ANOVA on mean valence rating only showed a significant main effect only for ’pictures’ (F 2,10 = 15.331, p =0.01) (figure 1.B). The unpleasant pictures rating was significantly lower than the ratings of neutral (p= 0.011) and pleasant pictures (p= 0.013) in RG. There were no significant effects for ’mission days’ or ’mission days * pictures’. Stable arousal rating. For both RG and NG, ANOVA conducted on arousal rating showed no significant change (figure 1.C and D). Compared with the valence rating, the changes of arousal rating were stable.

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Changes in POMS The mean POMS score fluctuated during isolation (figure 3). The score of vigor-activity changed significantly over time (F 7,35 =3.515, p =0.041); however, the pos-hoc comparisons showed no significant difference.

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Though TMD seemed to fluctuate in a stage model, the statistical result was not significant. The scores for TMD and vigor were temporally related, with each reaching their extreme value on day 366.

Changes in plasma hormones Paired-t comparisons between pre (27 d) and post (+7 d) plasma samplings showed subtle decreases in cortisol and DA (table 3). A significant rise was evident for both 5-HT (p= 0.009) and NE (p= 0.002).

As shown in figure 4, the level of NE rose significantly between day 168 and day 300.

After that, it began to decline, but it remained higher than the first 3 day-point collections (F 7,35 =9.415, p,0.01). The level of 5-HT changed in much the same pattern as NE (F 7,28 = 16.377, p= 0.001). As shown in table 2, it could be seen that the Mars landing period (from day 244 to day 272) was close to the time of this rise in 5HT and NE. The level of cortisol exhibited an increasing tendency with obvious fluctuation (F 7,35 =4.724, p= 0.016), and it reached its maximum value on day 510. The level of DA showed a quasi-significant decline on day 249 (F then remained relatively stable until the end of the study.

7,35

= 4.006, p =0.067), and it

The association between affective assessment and mood and plasma hormone levels The negative mood scores for depression, anger and TMD had significant positive correlations with D5-HT and DDA (table 4), which were negatively associated with vigor (p<0.05). DNE was positively correlated with vigor and TMD (p<0.05). The valence rating for novel unpleasant stimuli was significantly correlated with depression, vigor, fatigue, TMD, DNE and D5-HT (table 5). The associations between affective assessment and changes

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in mood and hormone levels existed and reflected the stability of the behavioral performance and the psychophysiological status.

The positive or neutral bias on valence rating of novel unpleasant stimuli over the prolonged confinement. Although IAPS has never been used in studies of ICEs before, authors found several pieces of evidence about affective assessment under some relevant stressors.

For instance, Weinberg found a similar emotional response in patients with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). Del Seppia reported that the impact of geomagnetic stimulation might enhance autonomic responses to emotional stimuli. Tempesta found that one-night sleep deprivation influenced the balance rating of neutral stimuli on a negative bias. Yoo found different results that were still consistent with the adverse effects of sleep deprivation, and increased negative evaluations of neutral stimuli. However, none of these studies concerned the accumulating impact of a long duration of stress, which might be the critical factor causing the positive bias on valence rating in the present study. It has been proved that human behavior can reflect the current mental state .

In authors opinion, the positive bias evaluation on negative stimuli was influenced by the aggravating psychological stress over time, which was consistent with the fluctuation of mood and hormone levels. With the influence of time, it was internal reluctant for the crewmembers to face negative stimuli which might make their personal state further worse. To avoid serious mental feelings and issues, the crew tended to assign positive ratings to these negative stimuli. On the other hand, the higher the valence rating on the unpleasant pictures, the worse the psychological status of the crew might be.

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In the current study, when the psychological status of the crew became worse with time, they expressed withdrawal from the negative stimuli with a positive rating bias. In addition to time, there were other factors inside which might impact the crew over confinement: the special events in table 2, the repetitive boring psychological questionnaires, and the heavy workload fitness tests, among others.

However, in the current study, we think it is difficult to define their contribution to our principal finding. First, the effects of most factors on each crewmember were acute and inconsistent, thus differing from the chronic mild effect of time. For example, after filling out monotonous questionnaires for more than an hour, some crewmembers felt much upset and low every time, while some felt normal. Further, the negative feeling which haunted them varied in duration. Some factors that might have the possibility to cause positive response, such as the Mars landing activities, also showed varying effects on the six crewmembers. Second, other impacting factors were not consistent with the collected data which authors used to conclude our previous finding. Some of them were even random and inescapable, for instance, the power emergency simulation. Therefore, authors believe that time was the main factor contributing to the principal finding in this study. Whether this phenomenon would happen under short or medium-term confinement, and whether it would be caused by other factors, must be examined in the future.

In this study, author found that the assessment of novel negative pictures was correlated with the changes in mood score and 5-HT and NE levels. Combining the psychological patterns with biochemical data, we deduced that there was a stage-changing adaptation for the Mar500 crew over 520 days of confinement: primarily stable at the beginning (quarter 1); then obvious changes appeared, such as the elevation of 5-HT and the decline of vigor, after the midpoint or near the end of quarter 2; the changing climax emerged in quarter 3 or near the beginning of quarter 4; and, finally, the fluctuating amplitude shrank towards the initial value from quarter 1. The adaptive pattern of the Mars500 crew is similar to the third-quarter phenomenon.

On +7 d after isolation, a detailed interview recording with both hand and video was made for each crewmember. The log, written by one crewmember, who was also the first author of this manuscript, provided extra reference. From the crewâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s viewpoints, the enthusiasm and high motivation dominated primarily, which was

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During the landing period, the crew was exposed to some novel and inescapable stressors, especially for the three landing members. These new stressors included supplying materials, head-down bed rest, anti-G suit, extravehicular activity (EVA) simulation, and driving robot detector, etc. They promoted the crew’s enthusiasm and energy rather than impairing their interest and performance. Accordingly, the rise in 5-HT and NE was temporally correlated with mid-mission activities, which was related to stress coping. This change was similar to those of some previous studies . After the Mars landing, there were no further novel stimuli. Monotony, depression, repeated scientific experiments and dehydrated food became routine. Once having the thought that almost half the time remained, the crewmembers found it difficult to calm down and sleep well. Except for the specific changes of emotional response in our study, some evident deterioration of mood, sleep, physical activity and neuromuscular performance was found at that moment .

Additionally, the crew’s socialization time outside of work became less. Most of the crewmembers lost their interest in communicating. Instead, they locked themselves in their private capsules. Even new mails from outside were difficult to excite them. This tough period lasted for approximately 4-5 months. When the crew realized that the remaining time was approximately 2-3 months, the psychological status began to improve. For instance, the frequency of team communication and entertainment in their spare time increased. However, the sensitivity and intensity of crew’s response to internal and external stimuli also increased. For example, impatience at new requests from outside increased, and disagreement within teammates and conflict with outside operators occurred more often. This state lasted until the exit.

This stage-changing model in Mars500 reflected by psychological and biochemical data was not completely identical with the crew’s description. The mid-mission activities might make a major contribution to the difference, which was emphasized by the Mars500 crew and also reflected on hormone levels during the stress-coping periods. If we overlooked the period of the Mars landing, the adaptive pattern with stages was generally accorded with the crew’s descriptions. In addition, novel tasks during the Mars landing period seemed helpful to activate motivation and attenuate the negative psychological effects, especially depression and monotony. This would be applicable to arranging the work scheme for astronauts on a long-term spaceflight.

Metagenomic Analysis of the Dynamic Changes in the Gut Microbiome of the Participants of the MARS500 Experiment, Simulating Long Term Space Flight The intestinal ecosystem is dominated by five phyla of bacteria accounting for over 95% of the entire microbiota; however, the proportion of taxa at the genus and species level is specific to each person . The latter is attributed to the genetic characteristics of every individual, the dominant type of nutrition, and the specifics of the interactions between microbes in a holistic ecosystem. Meanwhile, every "healthy" individual is characterized by their own balanced and constant metagenomic composition , which can vary significantly in the presence of various diseases or due to the impact of medicinal products . The interrelation between the condition of the resident microbiota and the type of nutrition , psychophysiological, and neurohumoral factors has been identified. Stressful physical and emotional overloads affect the composition of the microbiota. Deviations from the usual lifestyle (e.g. long trips) can lead to an imbalance in the ratio of various taxa in the microbiota , and they are often accompanied by painful symptoms (diarrhea, constipation, etc.). The conditions inherent in space flights may impose both physical and psychological stresses on astronauts , influencing the functioning of their intestinal microbiota .

The composition of the intestinal microbiota of five subjects was assessed during one of the biomedical tests (in the course of the "MARS-500" experiment their feces were periodically sampled). DNA preparations isolated from feces were used for sequencing, with subsequent determination of the taxonomic and genetic composition of the microbiota.

The study established that a prolonged stay in an isolated module leads to changes in the composition of the microbiota. The dynamics of the changes were specific to each participant. Adaptive restructuring of the intestinal ecosystem apparently occurred, reflecting the individual response of each participant to the influence of experimental conditions (psycho-emotional stress, change in type of nutrition, use of probiotics, etc.). These conditions had no significant negative impact on the health of the participants, as evidenced by the results of medical and biological monitoring of each of the participants’ condition.

Collection of samples for the metagenomic analysis In the course of the experiment, their feces were sampled at point zero (immediately prior to entering the isola-

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Special Edition on Mars Analogous Mission tion module), then after 14, 30, 210, 363,510 days of stay in the module and 2 weeks after exiting the module (524 days). The samples of feces were stored at -80â&#x2014;Ś C; DNA preparations were isolated using the QIAamp DNA stool Mini Kit (Qiagen, Germany), commonly used for the analysis of microbiota in feces. The quality of the DNA preparations was evaluated by agarose gel electrophoresis. It should be noted that the method used for DNA isolation can lead to an underestimation of the proportion of Actinobacteria and overestimation of the proportion of Bacteroidetes ; however, the comparative metagenomic analysis at different stages of the experiment is substantiated, as an identical approach was applied to all samples.

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Results Taxonomic composition of the intestinal microbiome on the basis of the results of pyrosequencing of fragments of the 16S rRNA genes Metagenomics methods using 16S rRNA as a marker revealed more than 40 genera of bacteria in the intestinal microbiota of the participants in the "MARS-500" experiment, the majority belonging to the four phyla: Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria, which is in agreement with data regarding the composition of the intestinal microbiota in healthy adults. Representatives of certain other phyla, including Fusobacteria, Verrucomicrobia and Synergistia, were also identified. Methanogenic archaea (Methanobrevibacter genus) were detected in two participants.

A comparative taxonomic analysis of the microbiota in fecal samples obtained from five participants at point zero of the experiment (prior to entering the isolated module) revealed significant individual differences between the participants with respect to the composition of the microbiota. The results obtained (Table 1) allowed to determine the belonging of the microbiota to specific enterotypes according to the classification proposed in 2011. Specific clusters of microbes with the predominance of a particular taxon are designated as enterotypes.

These clusters control the food chains in the microbial community and the interaction of the latter with the host characterized by individual genotypic characteristics.

Participants No.1 and No.3 were characterized by enterotype II dominated by Prevotella, combined with

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Firmicutes Faecalibacterium, Coprococcus, Blautia. Minor groups of Akkermansia (Verrucomicrobia) and βproteobacteria were detected in the intestinal microbiota of participant No.3 while participant No.1 was characterized by a high proportion of γ-Proteobacteria.

The microbiota of participants No.2 and No.5 belongs to enterotype I with the predominance of Bacteroides in a cluster with Parabacteroides, Faecalibacterium and certain groups of Ruminococcaceae and Lachnospiraceae.

Fusobacteria was also detected in these participants. One of the features of the composition of the microbiota

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A different picture of the taxonomic composition of the microbial community was found in participant No.4 . At point zero of the experiment no pronounced predominance of phylogroups determining enterotypes I and II was identified. A high proportion of Ruminococcaceae (including unclassified phylotypes), Lachnospiraceae, as well as Paraprevotella, was found instead. Amongst Negativicutes the genus Dialister was predominant as in participant No.2. The microbiota of participant No.4 was characterized by the presence of archaea Methanobrevibacter. Thus, the intestinal microbial community of this participant was different and could belong to a mixed type close to enterotype III . Such a mixed composition could be viewed from the perspective of the notions regarding the gradient of microbiome composition as opposed to the concept of discrete enterotypes.

The results of the metagenomic studies demonstrated that prolonged stay in the isolated module exerted influence on the taxonomic composition of the microbiota of each of the participants (Fig. 1). The dynamics of these changes had an individual character reflecting the differences in the initial composition of the microbial communities and the different reactions of the participants to the influence of the conditions/factors of the experiment. As can be seen from Fig. 1A-D, a single unidirectional trend in the changes in microbiota composition was absent in the participants from the beginning to the completion of the experiment. The variability of the changes appears to be associated with differences in the conditions at different stages of the experiment. This applies to the administration of the probiotic Enterococcus faecium (in the form of tablets during the first 180 days) and Eubikor and Vitaflor during the last months, change in diet, the performance of special types of tasks by certain members of the crew associated with the exit from the main module to the simulated surface of Mars (after 210 days but before sampling after 363 day). All participants received identical probiotics and prebiotics during a single period. Participants No. 2, No. 3, and No. 5 exited the module to the simulated surface of Mars wearing spacesuits.

The individual nature of the response of each participant is reflected in the data regarding the dynamics of the changes in the microbiota at the genus and species level and such indicators as the ratios of the major phyla, Firmicutes (F), and Bacteroidetes (B). With respect to microbiota, the ratio F/B changed significantly in participants No.1, No.2, and No.3 and in participants No.4 and No. 5 it remained relatively stable throughout the entire experiment (Fig. 1A). The F/B ratio of participant No.1 significantly increased only to the 210th day of stay in the module, while an increase in this index was observed after 2 weeks in participant No. 2. However, after 210 days it began to decline. On the contrary during the first month the F/B ratio decreased in participant No. 3 and then increased once again.

Several studies have shown that abrupt changes in the ratio of Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes occur in the presence of certain gastrointestinal and other diseases. However, symptoms of such diseases were not observed in any of the participants of the "Mars- 500"experiment during their stay in the module. Throughout the entire experiment, there were no changes in the basic enterotype, although the fractional content of individual taxa was significantly altered in the microbiota. The proportion of unidentified bacteria, representatives of Firmicutes (Fig. 1C), and Proteobacteria (Fig. 1D) increased in participant No. 1 from the 210th day, while high levels of Prevotella, Faecalibacterium and Coprococcus remained (Fig. 1B). In participant No. 2 the loss of Fusobacteria was discovered already on the 14th day of the experiment (Fig. 1D) and fluctuations in the relative abundance of bacteria from the genus Bacteroides defining enterotype II were detected (Fig. 1B). During the first weeks, a slight increase in the proportion of Faecalibacterium (with a subsequent decline) and a decrease in the proportion of Roseburia with an increase in the minor species of Alistripes (Rikkenellaceae) and representatives of Lachnospiraceae was recorded.

An insignificant decrease in the proportion of Bacteroides during the first weeks with an accompanying increase in the relative content of Prevotellaceae (Fig. 1B) and the proportion of Îł-Proteobacteria, as well as Megamonas (Negativicutes) and unclassified groups of bacteria, were detected in the microbiota of participant No. 3. The history of the and genera of the intestinal microbiota of participant No. 4 showed no significant fluctuations (Fig. 1).

However, an increase in the relative content of Faecalibacterium prausnitzii (Fig. 1C) during the first weeks of the experiment and Roseburia on the 210th day, as well as an increase in the proportion of Actinobacteria, was clearly identified (Fig. 2). No significant changes in the microbiota composition (except for Proteobacteria) in participant No. 5 (Fig. 1A) were detected. However, a trend towards a decrease in the proportion of Bacteroides towards the completion of the stay in the module was identified (Fig. 1B).

The detailed comparative analysis of the microbiota profiles revealed certain patterns in the dynamics of the

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content of Actinobacteria and Negativicutes. The Actinobacteria content was minimal in the initial samples of the microbiota of all participants, which could potentially be attributed to the peculiarities of the methods of DNA extraction and/or use of primers, which were ineffective for obtaining fragments of bifidobacteria 16S rRNA. As can be seen from Fig. 2, the samples obtained at different stages of the experiment demonstrated an increased relative content of Actinobacteria, especially in the microbiota of participant No. 4. This increase in the proportion of Actinobacteria can probably be attributed to the intake of probiotics, as it could stimulate the growth of bifidobacteria.

It is possible, however, that this increase in the proportion of Actinobacteria was determined by their more active dissociation from the surface of the epithelium at the sites where colonization occurred. If the composition of Negativicutes at the genus level did not change significantly during the experiment for participants No. 2, No.4 and No. 5, the microbiota of participant No.3 revealed a consistent replacement of bacteria from the genus Phascolarctobacter with bacteria from the genus Megamonas (Fig. 3) without restoration of the initial composition of Negativicutes 2 weeks after exiting the module.

The following trends could be noted during the analysis of the dynamics of the changes in the composition of the intestinal microbiota occurring in the course of the experiment. First, the impact of conditions/factors of the experiment was observed during the first weeks, although to varying degrees for different participants. It is believed that the rapid changes were caused by the initial psychological and emotional reaction to the unusual stressful conditions of containment in the isolated module. Second, there was a tendency toward partial recovery of the initial composition of the microbiota with respect to individual groups of taxa after the completion of

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Special Edition on Mars Analogous Mission the experiment. However, none of the participants demonstrated complete recovery of their initial composition 2 weeks after exiting the module. It is known that the use of antibiotics that cause drastic changes in the composition of the intestinal microbial community is followed by initiation of recovery in the initial composition after discontinuation of the medicinal product. However, even partial recovery of the composition of the indigenous microbiota requires prolonged periods of time.

Determination of the gene composition of the microbiota of participant No.2 The results of the analysis of the taxonomic composition of the microbiome with respect to the sequences of 16S rRNA genes presented above did not provide direct information regarding the set of functional genes in the microbial metagenome. Therefore, authors determined the gene composition of the samples of the microbiota of participant No. 2. This participant demonstrated noticeable changes in the taxonomic composition of microorganisms in the course of the experiment.

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During the analysis of the results of the sequencing of samples of metagenomic DNA according to the SOLiD technique , one must consider the following: 1) The average length of the contigs for different points did not exceed 200 nucleotides; i.e., it was significantly smaller than the average size of a bacterial gene.

2) The Bacteroidetes present in the microbiome were represented mainly by the Bacteroides genus (complete genomic sequences of many species from this genus had been determined).

The bacteria of the phylum Firmicutes were phylogenetically more diverse. Therefore, the taxonomic identification of contigs belonging to Bacteroidetes was relatively more complete, whilst many contigs de facto belonging to Firmicutes could not be classified due to the lack of close homologues in the databases. This led to an underestimation of the proportion of Firmicutes in the metagenome compared to the results of the 16S rRNA analysis. Nevertheless, the dynamics of the changes in the ratio between Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes remained the same.

Quantitative representation of the genes of certain functional categories in the metagenome (according to KEGG classification,) and their assignment to various taxonomic groups of bacteria were characterized. In general, significant changes in the microbiota of participant No.2 in the course of the experiment were absent with respect to the major functional categories of genes. Thus, the KEGG category "Carbohydrates metabolism," one of the most important for the functioning of the intestinal microbiota, at various stages of the experiment was represented by 16.7 to 18.6% of the identified genes (Fig. 4A). However, the relative contribution of various taxa of Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes changed in a significantly wider range as evidenced by the results of the "taxonomic" classification of these genes and the data obtained on the basis of the taxonomic analysis with respect to 16S rRNA.

We can assume that the process of restructuring of the taxonomic composition of the microbiome involved the replacement of genes in various representatives of Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes that determine the metabolism

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Special Edition on Mars Analogous Mission of carbohydrates, although the overall proportion of this functional category in the metagenome remained almost unaltered. A different picture was obtained during the analysis of the dynamics of changes in the proportion of genes of the KEGG category "Cell motility" responsible for cellular motility (Fig. 4B). The majority of the genes in this category was assigned to Firmicutes and, accordingly, their proportion in the metagenome varied with changes in the relative content of Firmicutes and, perhaps, Proteobacteria in the community.

These data are consistent with a small number of genes that determine cellular motility in the sequenced genomes of members of the genus Bacteroides. Cellular motility in Firmicutes and Proteobacteria is controlled by a large number of genes. Flagella not only provide mobility but also perform sensory functions and are involved in intercellular communication in ecosystems. Perhaps the "demand" for cellular motility determined the increase in the proportion of certain phylotypes of Firmicutes in the restructuring of the microbial community in the course of the experiment.

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The results of the metagenomic analysis of the intestinal microbiota of the participants of the "MARS-500" experiment simulating some of the conditions of long interplanetary flights suggest that containment in an isolated module is associated with the microbiota undergoing substantial changes in the composition of the microbial community. These changes were specific to each of the participants, which is attributable to the differences in the initial composition of the microbiota and the different nature of the responses to the influence of the experimental conditions depending on the genetic, physiological, and biochemical characteristics of each participant.

The factors affecting the taxonomic composition of the microbiota include the psychological stress attributed to the change in lifestyle, the switch to a different type of nutrition, and the use of probiotics. Monitoring of the dynamics of the changes in the microbiota demonstrated that (1) significant changes in the taxonomic composition began to appear during the initial stages of the experiment; (2) changes in the enterotypes in the individual taxonomic groups did not occur despite the large variability: i.e., the basic composition of the intestinal ecosystem remained unchanged; and (3) 2 weeks after exiting the module a tendency toward a return to the initial composition of the microbiota was observed; however, none of the participants demonstrated complete restoration of the initial composition of their microbial community. Perhaps, a two-week period of "rehabilitation" was simply insufficient for such recovery to occur.

Effects of Long-Term Isolation and Anticipation of Significant Event on Sleep The important role of sleep in physical and mental recovery is well-known . Moderate mental and physical activity causes increasing need in recuperation which may reduce sleep latency, advance deep sleep and augment percentage of rapid eye movement (REM) and delta-sleep. But too hard load causes stress (Selyeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s model). According to modern theories, this condition is one of the insomnia triggers . People exposed to grave or chronic stress suffer from insomnia more often than others . Acute emotional stress worsens sleep: increases sleep latency, decreases sleep efficiency and delta-sleep duration. Anticipation of a significant event also may cause sleep onset problems and sleep quality worsening. However, in any case even intensive single experience does not result in chronic insomnia. Probable reasons include not only potency and type of the exposure, but individual differences in response to stress . It is a difficult task to trace chronic stress effect on sleep of originally healthy person.

Mars-500 is a huge international project for partial ground simulation of interplanet manned flight. In this paper author present results of the main and the longest part of the experiment, which took place from the 3rd June 2010 to the 4th November, 2011 (520 days). The experiment included 3 parts: "flight to the Mars," "Mars landing" and "return to the Earth." The cosmonauts reported the landing as much anticipated and the most exciting part. It lasted for a month in the middle of the isolation.

The sleep study (polysomnography, PSG) was initiated in time, when the cosmonaut decided to go to bed and lasted until spontaneous morning awakening. The recordings were performed by somnological polygraphs of "Neurosoft" (Ivanovo, Russia) and "Neurobotics" (Zelenograd, Russia) and included electrooculagraphic, electromyographic and 6 electroencephalographic (EEG) channels. The electrodes position and sleep scoring matched current criteria of American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

Six recordings (each consisted of two consequent nights) were performed 10 weeks before ("before"), 4 times during and 2 weeks after the isolation ("after"). During the confinement polysomnography was recorded at the beginning and the end of "flight to the Mars" and "return to the Earth": first sleep study was performed six weeks after onset of the isolation ("P1"), second-two weeks before the "Mars landing" ("P2"), third-two weeks after the Martian part of the experiment ("P3") and fourth-six weeks before the end of the confinement ("P4")(Fig. 1).

After sleep scoring standard sleep structure parameters were calculated: (1) time in bed (TIB)-period (in min)

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from light off to the end of the recording;(2) sleep latency-period from light off to the sleep onset; (3) delta sleep latency-period from sleep onset to the first epoch of delta sleep; (4) REM latency-period from sleep onset to the first epoch of REM sleep; (5) total sleep time (TST)-the sum of stage 1, stage 2, delta and REM sleep duration in min; (6) sleep efficiency (in %)-ratio of TST in TIB; (7) percent of stage 1, stage 2, delta and REM sleep-ratio (in %) of duration of the stage to TST; (8) wake after sleep onset (WASO)-duration of wake during a period from sleep onset to the end of the recording; (9) arousal index-total amount of arousal per TST and multiply by 60.

Results During the experiment 63 suitable polysomnographies were recorded. Due to technical problems some recordings: 3 nights "before", 3 nights in "P1" and 1 night in "P3," "P4" and "after" were lost. In "P1" two PSG were inadequate for the same crew member, during other periods at least one recording for each cosmonaut was analyzed. Repeated measure ANOVA demonstrated significant (p < 0.05) difference in sleep and delta sleep latency, sleep efficiency and percent of stage 2 and tendency (p < 0.1) for delta sleep percent (see table).

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Special Edition on Mars Analogous Mission Pair-wise analysis ( Fig. 2) discovered main differences for the end of the isolation ("P4"): sleep latency increased in comparison with baseline values ("before"), sleep efficiency reduced both in comparison with baseline ("before") and recordings after the landing ("P3"), however, the delta sleep latency decreased in comparison with baseline and first part of the isolation. Concerning sleep stages percent, the only difference was stage 2 augmentation and delta sleep reduction "after" in comparison to second half of the confinement.

That could be caused by prolonged time in bed and total sleep time after the isolation (statistical nonsignificant).

Alongside, authors analyzed frequency of night with poor sleep quality and traced it through the experiment. 25% quartile (83.2%) of sleep efficency was used as a borderline. As you can see (Fig. 3), number of the nights with low sleep efficiency (<83.2%) dramatically increased before the landing ("P2"), after this important event it decreased ("P3") and augmented again toward the end of the isolation ("P4") and reduced after the end of the confinement.

Authors analyzed night sleep before, after and four times during the 520-days isolation in the spaceship model. Authors demonstrated sleep latency prolongation and sleep efficiency reduction under condition of long-duration confinement. The sleep significantly changed during the end of the experiment ("P4"-67 weeks of confinement), but we cannot confirm that this is related to the duration of isolation. The "P4" is a time-point in anticipation (1.5 months before) of the end of the confinement and the exciting meeting with family, friends and the outside world. The high sleep efficiency at the period "P3" (41 weeks of confinement) confirms this hypothesis. This sleep parameter is significantly higher than at "P4" and less deviates from baseline level.

Distribution of nights with low sleep efficiency also showed it: number of these nights was significantly higher before the expected events important for the crew (the end of the confinement and Mars landing) in comparison to baseline ("before") and recordings after the landing ("P3"). The differences of the periods which preceeded to the Mars landing and correspondent to the end of the confinement, were also demonstrated by Basner et al.: while the general tendency for the entire experiment was actigraphic rest time increasing, it decreased before the significant events, especially the end of the experiment . It is an argument for higher effect of significant event anticipation in condition of the long-term isolation on genesis of sleep disturbances.

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Special Edition on Mars Analogous Mission In the second part of the project "Mars-500" (Mars-105- 105 days isolation) authors discovered augmentation of "insomnia-like" nights (prolonged sleep latency and high WASO) from begin to the end of the confinement. At that moment we interpreted it as increase in sleep disturbance frequency alongside with duration of the isolation, but new data let us hypothesize that it was anticipation of the end of the experiment effect.

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In "Mars-105" experiment, sleep recordings performed 2 weeks before the start of the experiment, in other words anticipation of the beginning of the isolation, did not demonstrated any worsening in sleep quality as compared to the registration after the beginning of the confinement.

Authors have already speculated that the reason for the absence of the differences between the periods before and few days after the onset of the experiment is the equal adaptive stress of sleep mechanisms but not the neutrality of them for the participants. Probably, in this study the anticipation did not affect the baseline values due to prolong interval between recordings and the beginning of the isolation (more than 2 months). Delta sleep latency decrease (advance of deep sleep) before the end of the confinement could be an adaptive response to the prolongation of sleep latency or a marker of sleep instability. In the "Mars-105" experiment authors demonstrated that diminution of delta sleep latency is a characteristic of subjects with unstable (with variable range) sleep latency and WASO. Long-Term Space Flight Simulation Reveals Infradian Rhythmicity in Human Na+ Balance The milieu interieur is maintained through extracellular electrolyte and water content and is relevant for blood pressure control. Maintenance requires a steady state between daily Na+ intake and Na+ excretion. Most earlier human studies involved short-term shifts from very low to high salt intakes . However, longer balance studies have not been consistent with the conventional idea that Na+ intake and excretion are in balance within 1 day . Kirkendall investigated Na+ balance and other variables and estimated a Na+ recovery rate of about 70%.

Variable recovery has generally been attributed to lack of compliance. Animal data also cast doubt as to whether or not total-body Na+ content is really maintained constant within narrow limits.

Authors showed previously that Na+ is stored without commensurate water retention in skin and in skeletal muscle of rodents. These observations caused us to reexamine Na+ balance in humans. We asked ourselves three questions: Are salt intake and daily urinary Na+ excretion (UNaV) related? Are total-body Na+ and extracellular water related? Is total-body Na+ necessarily a function of salt intake, as suggested by steady-state theory for salt and water homeostasis ?

Authors had a unique opportunity to study salt balance under metabolic ward conditions for 105 and 205 days within a controlled long-term simulated space flight program termed Mars500. During two simulations (Mars105 and Mars520) conducted in an enclosed habitat, we solely modified daily salt intake (12 g/day, 9 g/day, 6 g/day in Mars105 and back to 12 g/day NaCl in Mars520; see Table S3 and Figure S4 online) for 30-60 days. Authors collected 24 hr urine daily (105 days in Mars105 and 205 days in Mars520). The findings uncover rhythmic Na+ excretory and retention patterns independent of blood pressure or body weight (BW) and give insights into aldosterone, cortisol, and 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 2 (11β-HSD2) as regulators.

RESULTS Salt Intake, Na+ Homeostasis, and Blood Pressure Authors achieved 95% recovery of dietary Na+ in UNaV over each dietary phase during both studies (Table S4), indicating steady-state Na+ balance. Blood pressure decreased when dailyvsalt intake was reduced from 12 to 6 g/day (Figure 1A and Table S1) and increased with reinstitution of the 12 g/day salt diet in Mars520. Daily aldosterone excretion (UAldoV) increased with stepwise dietary salt reduction in Mars105 and Mars520 and

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then decreased with reinstitution of the 12 g/day salt diet in Mars520. Daily urinary free cortisol (compound F) excretion (UFFV) behaved opposite to UAldoV in response to diets, as did urinary free cortisone (compound E) excretion (UFEV). Compared to a 12 g salt intake, the ratio between UFE and UFF was increased with 6 g salt.

In Mars520, long-term exposition of the 6 g/day salt diet was followed by a step-change re-exposition to 12 g/day. Within the first week, the body’s adaptation to this environmental change was characterized by parallel increases inBWand extracellular water, an increase in total-body Na+ , and a decrease in UAldoV, as anticipated (Figure 1B). This increase in extracellular water was not paralleled by a significant increase in blood pressure.

However, for the subsequent three weeks, blood pressure gradually increased, while BW and extracellular water decreased. Total-body Na+ proceeded to decrease despite high-salt intake.

Circaseptan Variability in Na+ Excretion Authors were struck by the high degree of variability in the data at each salt intake level (Figure 1A). Authors therefore inspected the data from each individual subject by daily time series analysis. Although salt intake was fixed, daily UNaV, UAldoV, UFFV, and UFEV also exhibited marked day-to-day fluctuations (Figure 1C). All subjects in both Mars105 and Mars520 exhibited these rhythmic excretory patterns (Figure S1). To investigate the body’s rhythmic response to constant salt intake, authors next normalized the data for salt intake (detrending of time series) and analyzed the period lengths of these rhythmic change patterns by power spectral analysis (Figure 2A and Figure S1). UNaV, UAldoV, UFFV, and UFEV all showed peaks at about 6 days period length (circaseptan). UFFV and UFEV in addition showed prominent peaks with monthly period lengths.

Interrelation between Rhythmical Na+ , Aldosterone, and Cortisol Excretion To inspect the rhythmic relationship between salt intake and the excretory parameters further, authors performed a crosscorrelation time series analysis (Figures 2B and 2C). Crosscorrelation is a measure of waveform similarities as a function of a time lag. ∆τ represents the phase shift or time lag in days (Figure S2). With fixed salt intake, there was no day in which any excretory parameter was uniformly dependent on Na+ intake in any

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subject (Figure 2B). In contrast, UNaV and UAldoV were inversely correlated at ∆τ = 0 in the subjects, while UNaV and UFFV, or UFEV, were directly correlated at ∆τ = 0 (Figure 2C). Thus, the relationship between UNaV and UAldoV confirmed the antinatriuretic action of aldosterone. In contrast, urinary free cortisol and cortisone excretion unexpectedly were associated with enhanced urinary Na+ excretion.

A serendipitous feature of Mars105 allowed us to test the influence of sleep deprivation on Na+ homeostasis. In Mars105, the subjects were required to serve a nightshift duty, every sixth night, which was not the case in Mars520. Blood pressure on the morning after nightshift was higher compared to nonnightshift (Figure 3A). Besides the expected UAldoV response to changes in salt intake, we found increased urinary aldosterone excretion during days with nightshift. In contrast, UFFV and UFEV were not increased with nightshift. Additional individual time series crosscorrelation analysis revealed a strong inverse correlation between nightshift and UNaV in three of four subjects, which recurred every 6 days (Figure 3B). The time course of this antinatriuretic response was paralleled by increased UAldoV in the same subjects. One subject did not increase UAldoV in response to nightshift (subject 1A) but instead showed increased UFFV and UFEV, which then were coupled with a slight increase in UNaV during nightshift.

Long-Term Changes in Total-Body Na+ The ultralong nature of the Mars520 study allowed us to inspect day-to-day changes in total-body Na+ based on Na+ intake and UNaV. Individual time series analysis revealed an infradian (longer than circadian) rhythm in total-body Na+ with phases that extended over weeks (Figure 4A), irrespective of salt intake, in all subjects (Figure S3). Authors crosscorrelated total-body Na+ with UAldoV, UFFV, UFEV, and UFE/UFF ratio to detect potential regulatory hormones involved in generation of these longterm rhythmical change patterns. Rhythmic variability between total-body Na+ and UAldoV was parallel and phase shifted by 1-2 weeks (Figure 4B and Figure S3).

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Rhythmic variability between total-body Na+ and UFFV or UFEV was in counterphase and exhibited similar phase shifts (Figure 4B and Figure S3). Rhythmic variability between total-body Na+ and UFE/UFF ratio was in phase, phase shifted, or in counterphase in the subjects. Authors found no significant association between variability in totalbody Na+ and blood pressure in the same subjects (Figure 4C and Figure S3).

While crosscorrelation analysis between total-body Na+ and urinary hormone excretion delivered variable results, time series analysis of interrelation between the urinary hormones revealed underlying similarity. Author found that secretion patterns in UAldoV and UFFV or UFEV were in counterphase around ∆τ = 0 . UAldoV and UFE/UFF ratio were directly correlated in most of the subjects. These findings suggest that increases in total-body Na+ , which appeared independent of salt intake, were associated with increased UAldoV and decreased UFFV, while decreases in totalbody Na+ were coupled with low UAldoV and high UFFV levels. The inverse relationship between UAldoV and UFFV may in part be coordinated by suppression or activation of 11β-HSD2 activity.

SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION Supplemental Information includes four figures, four tables, and Supplemental Experimental Procedures and can be found with this article at http://dx.doi. org/10.1016/j.cmet.2012.11.013.

The Mars500 studies on salt intake and Na+ balance are distinct from earlier studies that investigated Na+ homeostasis at extremes of salt intake or in response to provocative maneuvers.

Earlier studies were brief, and the investigators assumed that once steady state was achieved, daily UNaV would reliably reflect salt intake.

Authors aimed to test the reverse experimental approach, namely the response of the body to constant salt intake. Thus, the Mars500 balance studies were not only designed to examine Na+ balance in response to abrupt increases in dietary salt (traditional step change approach) but also to investigate Na+ metabolism in response to ultra-long-term constant salt intake (ultra-long-term constancy). Such experiments cannot be performed under daily life conditions, because precisely controlled food intake and specimen collection by each test subject over months would be necessary.

The design of the Mars500 Na+ balance studies allowed us to address the question. In line with accepted notions, abrupt increases in salt intake induced short-term increases in total-body Na+ and extracellular water, rapid suppression of aldosterone excretion, and expected adjustment in UNaV to the next salt intake level.

Unexpected was the observation that high-salt diet increases cortisol excretion in humans, an effect that we attribute in part to diminished action of 11β-HSD2. Our results also showed a modest, variable salt effect on blood pressure; however, the effect was delayed and required several weeks to achieve plateau. These findings support the assumption that endocrine and/or blood pressure homeostatic mechanisms are primarily operative to prevent variability in extracellular Na+ and volume content, despite variable salt intake .

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However, our experiments featured an additional, hithertofore unappreciated component of Na+ metabolism in humans, namely endocrine-driven generation of variability in urinary Na+ excretion and total-body Na+ content in response to a constant salt intake. Authors found that UNaV in humans was characterized by weekly (circaseptan) rhythmic change patterns, which were not related to salt intake but instead were paralleled by inversely changing patterns in UAldoV and directly changing patterns in UFFV. Because the subjects received time information from the outside world, authors cannot conclusively prove the existence of endogenous freerunning weekly cycles in our subjects. However, the almost complete loss of all other variability in UNaV and UAldoV except for sharp circasemiseptan and circaseptan frequencies that were precisely synchronized with days on which the subjects had to serve a nightshift, resemble endogenous oscillatory entrainment to lightdark Zeitgebers . Halberg and colleagues have demonstrated that endogenous circaseptan and circasemiseptan rhythms exist in algae . Separating isolated human subjects from all possible factors that could act as Zeitgebers for months or years to prove free-running circaseptan periodicity would probably require a real trip to Mars.

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Ad Astra ! To The Stars! In Peace For All Mankind !

Mr. Rick R. Dobson, Jr. (Veteran U.S Navy)

International Space Agency(ISA) ( Non 足 Profit Organization ) P.O. Box 541053 Omaha, Nebraska 68154 United States