EXPLORATION SPACE MISSIONS WILL REQUIRE THAT SPACE CREWS MANAGE TASKS MORE AUTONOMOUSLY THAN IN CURRENT OPERATIONS ALTHOUGH THEY WILL CONTINUE TO BE PART OF THE MULTI-TEAM SYSTEM (MTS) COMPRISED OF MEMBERS IN SPACE AND ON THE GROUND. THE OVERALL GOAL OF THE PROPOSED RESEARCH IS TO DEVELOP COUNTERMEASURES THAT WILL ENHANCE THE ABILITY OF MTS MEMBERS TO MAINTAIN EFFECTIVE TEAM PERFORMANCE AND MANAGE AUTONOMOUS OPERATIONS DURING LONG DURATION EXPLORATION MISSIONS (LDEMS). WE WILL USE NASA LIFE SCIENCES DATA ARCHIVE (LSDA) DATA COLLECTED IN SPACE ANALOGS AND THE ISS TO DEVELOP MODELS OF THE INDIVIDUAL- AND TEAM-LEVEL RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN CREW AUTONOMY EMERGENT STATES AND TEAM PERFORMANCE. ADDITIONALLY SEVERAL SIMULATIONS WILL BE CONDUCTED IN SPACE ANALOGS TO ASSESS THE IMPACT OF DIFFERENT AUTONOMY IMPLEMENTATIONS ON MTS PERFORMANCE IN LONG-DURATION MISSIONS. DATA FROM THIS STUDY WILL BE USED TO TEST AND REFINE THE INDIVIDUAL- AND TEAM-LEVEL MODELS AND TO CREATE A MTS-LEVEL MODEL OF THE AUTONOMY PERFORMANCE RELATIONSHIP. OUR APPROACH IS COMPREHENSIVE IN THAT WE WILL EXAMINE DIFFERENT IMPLEMENTATIONS AND LEVELS OF AUTONOMY EXPERIENCE WITH INTERDEPENDENT AND AUTONOMOUS OPERATIONS INDIVIDUAL AND TEAM PROCESS VARIABLES AS WELL AS VARYING TASK CONSTRAINTS. A SET OF PRODUCTS TO SUPPORT SPACE AND MISSION CONTROL TEAMS DURING LONG-DURATION EXPLORATION MISSIONS WILL BE DELIVERED. THESE INCLUDE: A VALIDATED MODEL OF FACTORS RELATED TO TEAM AUTONOMY AND TEAM PERFORMANCE IN LDEMS; RECOMMENDATIONS FOR HOW TEAM AUTONOMY SHOULD BE MANAGED WITHIN A MTS DURING LDEMS INCLUDING COUNTERMEASURES TO MITIGATE POTENTIAL NEGATIVE EFFECTS; AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH ON AUTONOMOUS TEAM FUNCTIONING.
$974,467FY2016National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA
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