2001

Spaceflight Analogs and Preparing for Mars: HERA, HI-SEAS, MARS500 and More

Research spanning from 7-day laboratory confinement to 520-day Mars mission simulations demonstrates that while humans show remarkable initial adaptability to isolated conditions—with some individuals maintaining cognitive performance and psychological stability even during—the cumulative effects of confinement manifest across multiple interconnected systems including immune dysregulation (elevated cortisol with paradoxical immune hyperactivity), neurobiological changes (reversible gray matter reductions in temporal, parietal, and hippocampal regions), circadian disruption (progressive hypokinesis and sleep-wake disturbances), and complex team dynamics where conflicts with external authority structures occur five times more frequently than interpersonal conflicts among confined groups.
The research reveals that isolation and confinement represent a unique stressor profile distinct from other forms of chronic stress, with individual responses ranging from severe psychological deterioration (93% depression symptom weeks in vulnerable individuals) to complete resilience, underscoring that confined environments act as biological and psychological crucibles that amplify pre-existing individual differences while simultaneously challenging fundamental human systems including immune function, neural architecture, temporal organization, cognitive performance, and social cooperation. These findings collectively demonstrate that successful adaptation to prolonged isolation requires not merely psychological resilience but active countermeasures to maintain the biological rhythms, social structures, and environmental cues that organize human behavior, with implications extending from space exploration to the increasingly common social isolation experienced in modern society.
The NASA HERA facility in Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas is a 650-square foot habitat designed to study how crew members adapt to the physical and psychological conditions of a simulated spaceflight mission. For up to 45 days, teams of four conduct operational tasks and perform research bouts so that we may understand how people adapt to the isolation, confinement and workload  that extended space travel entails. 
Read more here: Cognitive Performance During Confinement and Sleep Restriction in NASA’s Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA)
Effects of six weeks of chronic sleep restriction with weekend recovery on cognitive performance and wellbeing in high-performing adults
The Hawai'i Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) is a research station located on the slopes of the Mauna Loa volcano on the island of Hawai'i. Due to its isolated position located 8,200 feet above sea level, with a terrain resembling the Martian landscape, it serves as a high-fidelity analog to the conditions crewmembers can expect during Martian exploration. Additional challenges at the HI-SEAS habitat that mimic Martian conditions include communication delays and increased exposure to radiation due to the altitude. We have researched crews spending between four and twelve months in the isolated HI-SEAS environment.  
Read more here: -Investigations at HI-SEAS into team function and performance on long duration exploration missions
See other HI-SEAS publications and learn more about the project here or here. 
Behavioral health risks are among the most serious and difficult to mitigate risks of confinement in space craft during long-duration space exploration missions. A crew of 6 were confined to a 550 m3 chamber for 520 days during the first Earth-based, high-fidelity simulated mission to Mars, during which we investigated the psychological, physiological, and technological challenges inherent to long-duration space flight. The unprecedented duration, high fidelity, and ecologic validity of the simulation make the Mars-520 study unique and in many ways superior to a number of space simulations performed in the past.
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Read more here: Psychological and Behavioral Changes during Confinement in a 520-Day Simulated Interplanetary Mission to Mars
520-d Isolation and confinement simulating a flight to Mars reveals heightened immune responses and alterations of leukocyte phenotype
Mars 520-d mission simulation reveals protracted crew hypokinesis and alterations of sleep duration and timing
Learn about the MARS-500 project here
NASA’s vision for successful long-duration exploration missions (LDEM) depends on optimizing human performance, adaptability, and resiliency to reduce individual and crew behavioral risks. To date, the major emphasis in optimizing astronauts for their tolerance to prolonged spaceflight has involved human health and performance countermeasures as well as technologies and tools to ensure safety during exploration. However, considerable evidence suggests that there are individual differences among astronauts in their vulnerabilities to the various stressors of spaceflight. Our aim as a designated NASA Specialized Center of Research (NSCOR) is to obtain novel information that will help identify individuals who are resilient to the stressors of prolonged human spaceflight, thereby ensuring successful completion of exploration missions and the preservation of astronaut health over the life of the astronaut.
We propose to identify biological and behavioral markers of individual social adaptation and emotional resilience (as well as vulnerability) to spaceflight-relevant confined and extreme environments (ICC and ICE). The NSCOR focuses specifically on differences among astronauts in their tolerance of and adaptability to simulated conditions of prolonged spaceflight that impact behavioral health and performance.
This multi-year campaign includes studying a total of N=90 healthy adult astronaut surrogates in three spaceflight-analog environments: (1) n=40 healthy adults in the Isolation and Confinement Analog Research Unit (ICARUS), an ICC at the University of Pennsylvania, during 7-day missions, for a target total of 280 subject days; (2) n=32 healthy adult astronaut surrogates studied in NASA’s Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA), an ICC at Johnson Space Center during 45-day missions, for a target total of 2,112 subject days; and (3) n=18 healthy adults in the Alfred-Wegener-Institute’s Neumayer Station III, an ICE in Antarctica, during 14-month missions, for a target total of 7,560 subject days.
The NSCOR will provide novel information on the extent to which behavioral and biological factors can be identified that predict astronauts who can maintain positive mood, proactive social processes, a high level of performance and personal wellbeing, while coping with confinement, meaningless work, limited social support, and living in the extreme environmental conditions of space. Such a discovery will help in selecting astronauts most likely to maintain human health and performance during long-duration exploration missions.
Read more here: NSCOR

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