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ESDMD #0404: Behavioral Countermeasures for Extended Habitation in Space

Ways to support crew behavioral health and performance on long missions with communication delay and little or no resupply (bin 5, rating 42 of 57). Today's support depends on the ground, through "private family conferences, care packages, etc.", which "will not be an adequate approach for exploration missions". Targets are 365 days in space for the Moon and 2–3 years for Mars (Tech gaps spreadsheet, ESDMD #0404).

Quotations below are from row ESDMD #0404 of the tech gaps spreadsheet unless marked otherwise. ADD Rev C's Appendix D prints the same table for this gap, and it matches the row field for field (ADD Rev C, p. 221).

Description

"Long mission durations do not yet have complete countermeasures in this area, which need improvements due to increased isolation, resource constraints, and communications delay. As missions increase in duration and become more Earth-independent, the crew’s on-board equipment and tools need to be adequate to maintain crew health and be compatible with future missions/systems. Behavioral countermeasures and assessment tools need to be improved for crew to accurately maintain and monitor health and performance during exploration missions."

Impacts and benefits: "Impacts require closer investigation, but non-closure of the gap may result in increased clinical risks to crewmembers during prolonged deep space missions. Failure to close this gap may also increase the risk to crew behavioral health and performance, which may increase loss of crew and loss of mission risk. Decremented crew performance may also affect mission in other aspects beyond risk."

Current state of the art

"Current countermeasures for behavioral health and performance rely on real-time support and resupply from the ground team via private family conferences, care packages, etc. These will not be an adequate approach for exploration missions with communication delays and limited to no resupply."

Performance target

  • Moon/Mars: "Long-duration exploration mission-compatible behavioral countermeasures performing adequately to reduce adverse crew health outcomes with communication delays and without resupply."
  • Moon: "In addition, support mission durations up to 365 days in space."
  • Mars: "In addition, support mission durations on the order of 2-3 years."

Child gaps

  • 0404-01: Behavioral health and performance countermeasures
  • 0404-02: Behavioral health and performance assessment tools

Traceability

  • Use cases and functions: UC-X-103 L -- FN-X-103 L; UC-X-104 L -- FN-X-104 L; UC-X-101 M -- FN-X-101 M; UC-X-102 M -- FN-X-102 M. The four crew countermeasure gaps (#0401–#0404) list exactly these four pairs.
  • Against the Mars decomposition: the Mars spreadsheet doesn't make either Mars pair. It puts FN-X-101 M under UC-H-102 M, UC-H-104 M, UC-X-105 M and UC-X-107 M, and FN-X-102 M under UC-H-103 M, UC-H-105 M, UC-X-106 M and UC-X-108 M. UC-X-101 M and UC-X-102 M (medical care and emergency response) have emergency functions instead (FN-H-123 M to FN-H-126 M, FN-X-109 M to FN-X-112 M, FN-L-301 M, FN-L-302 M). The pairs are kept as the gap prints them (Mars use cases; open question 60).
  • Definition tasks: Mars: Maximum Total Crew Mission Duration
  • Cross-reference: FN-X-103 L, "Provide crew countermeasure system(s) to support the crew for moderate durations (month+) on the lunar surface", is also one of the Users Guide's Phase 1 functional gaps (Users Guide, p. 9; see Phase 1 functional gaps). This link joins the two sources; neither makes it. UC-X-103 L -- FN-X-103 L also appears under #0401, #0402, #0403 and #0405.

Segments and sub-architectures

Priority

Priority bin 5, overall prioritization rating 42 of 57. The rating is "the gap's location in the prioritized list of gaps", so 1 is the highest priority, and bins group gaps of similar priority, bin 1 highest. Criticality, urgency, breadth and depth set the order; cost is not considered (ADD Rev C, pp. 78, 199; method on the gaps index).

Moon Base relevance

Not established by the sources so far. The Users Guide does not name #0404 among its near-term Moon Base challenges (Technology and knowledge challenges). Its Mars-forward area "Human factors" opens, without citing this gap: "A continuous presence at the Moon Base means more data on astronaut performance in deep space than ever before" (Users Guide, p. 14; see Mars-forward).

Sources

Tech gaps spreadsheet, ESDMD #0404 · ADD Rev C, pp. 78, 199, 221 · Users Guide, pp. 9, 14