Current international roadmaps for human space exploration envision month-long stays on the Moon over the next few decades, with manned missions to Mars as a long-term goal. The psychological effects of human spaceflight, especially in the sense of isolation and confinement, should be explored before manned deep space missions. To enable astronauts to not only survive, but thrive in alien environments, practice is required. The practice involves operations on the ISS, but the ISS cannot simulate all aspects of a lunar or Martian mission, such as surface operations or long periods without sunlight. Research is therefore being conducted under controlled, isolated conditions within simulated space habitats, to gain insight into the effects of these conditions on research subjects and their impacts on well-being and success of the crews. Similarly, an analog environment cannot fully replicate that of the Moon or Mars, but a variety of analog environments simulating different aspects of the off-world environment can be used together to prepare for future missions. In a review article recently published in Space: Science & Technology, Matej Poliaček, a professional and independent aerospace industry researcher, reviewed experiments conducted during two separate 15-day missions at the LunAres research base in Piła, Poland and presented the antecedents, the methodology, results and conclusions.
First, the author introduced material and methods, introducing the LunAres habitat, location, and the two different missions. The habitat was completely isolated from the external environment: the complete isolation from the outside world, including the lack of windows and thus the total absence of access to daylight allowed to investigate the effects of total isolation in the crew, as well as experiments related to the circadian rhythm in humans. . The habitat consisted of a dome-shaped living area, to which several modules were attached. In the summer of 2018, two analog missions, ARES-III and LEARN, were carried out in the LunAres habitat, lasting 2 weeks each. The missions ran on lunar/martian time, meaning the crew did not synchronize with the external mission control crew, which was based far from the habitat and continued to operate on Earth time. The mission control crew (MCC) was responsible for coordinating the mission from the outside and communicating with the crew on a daily basis, just like on real manned missions. ARES-III was a Mars simulation mission, with the crew consisting of six crew members. As a Mars analogue, the crew had a 20-minute delay in communications with mission control. The main method of communication was text communication and voice communication used in some cases for updates. The ARES-III crew was forced to eat only freeze-dried food for lunch and dinner. The LEARN mission was carried out by five crew members. Since there was only a 1.3-second communication delay between the Earth and the Moon, communications between the crew and the MCC were conducted using video and voice methods, as well as text. The LEARN analog astronaut crew was also forced to eat only freeze-dried (freeze-dried) food for the duration of the mission.
The author then presented all experiments led by both crews, including research and non-research activities. This part was divided into three subparts, the first concerned the joint activities that were common between the two crews. Using the same methodology, both collected cognitive function, environmental, physiological, and inventory data, resulting in a larger data set that allowed the two missions to be compared in terms of different human factors. The joint activities consisted of the stress and cognition experiment in isolation, with the aim of investigating and monitoring stress responses (cortisol and oxidative stress) and cognitive performance in various cognitive domains (general, spatial and non-spatial) throughout the insulation. In addition, food consumption, exercise, medical checkups, daily reports, and various non-research activities also generated a larger data set for future research. The second refers to the activities of the ARES-III mission. The experiments included the following: effects of consumption of freeze-dried food on oral health and saliva production, influence of isolation on hearing ability, feelings of safety in the isolated habitat, and research on the growth of hookworm soil in different soil compositions. The primary objective of this analog mission was to conduct neuropsychological research on the effects of living in isolation and confinement and to study a resource-poor environment on stress responses, group dynamics, circadian rhythms, cognition, and the microbiota As in most analog missions (such as the Mars Desert Research Station), the main experiment is the observation of crew dynamics. In addition, the Mars mission analyzed the physical performances of the crew and compared them with those performed during similar activities on Mars Research Desert Station missions and the impact of confinement on their efficiency by performing a remote operation of a rover . The third the activities of the LEARN mission. Similar to ARES-III, the objectives were to conduct neuropsychological research and study the effect of low-resource environments. In addition, the mission included studies of the influence of freeze-dried food on the crew’s oral health, the sense of isolated safety, and several biology-oriented experiments.
Finally, there was a brief discussion and conclusion about the corresponding challenges of the missions. From the isolation conditions, experiments, and previous activities, it was clear that much work was being done to answer the most important questions for future human exploration: how did the isolation, the truncated space, the busy schedules, unique members and personalities who brought their own? Can social, cultural, and emotional backgrounds affect the astronaut’s mission and health? There were several questions related to what kind of crew can be considered ideal: was it a one-gender crew? Did the crew members come from different cultures and backgrounds? Should their backgrounds be similar or should they cover as broad a range of skills as possible? Do they all have to be about the same age? Analog astronauts were the guinea pigs of these questions. Although the author did not directly answer the above questions, it was an example of how things were being done, and further, more detailed research was then proposed, in order to act on the solution of these problems.
reference
Authors: Simon Bouriat, Matej Poliaček and Jacob Smith
Title of the original presentation: Overview of the activities: ARES-III and APRENDRE Analogous missions to the LunAres Hab
Link to article: https://doi.org/10.34133/2022/9763959
Magazine: Space: Science and Technology
DOI: https://doi.org/10.34133/2022/9763959
Affiliations:
SpaceAble, France
Professional and independent researcher in the aerospace industry, Slovakia
UK Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (UKSEDS), United Kingdom
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