HI-SEAS (Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation,
www.hi-seas.org) is a habitat on an isolated Mars-like site on the Mauna
Loa side of the saddle area on the Big Island of Hawaii at approximately
8200 feet above sea level. HI-SEAS is unique, in addition to its setting
in a distinctive analog environment, as:
- we select the crew to meet our research needs (in serendipitous
analogs, such as Antarctic stations, crew selection criteria are not
controlled by researchers)
- the conditions (habitat, mission, communications, etc.) are explicitly
designed to be similar to those of a planetary exploration mission
- the site is accessible year round, allowing longer-duration isolated
and confined environment studies than at other locations
- the Mars-like environment offers the potential for analog tasks, such
as geological field work by human explorers and/or robots.
The ability to select crew members to meet research needs and isolate
them in a managed simulation performing under specific mission profiles
makes HI-SEAS ideal for detailed studies in space-flight crew dynamics,
behaviors, roles and performance, especially for long-duration missions.
Taking advantage of this capability, our current research addresses one
of the NASA Human Research Program's key issues: "We need to understand
the key threats, indicators, and life cycle of the team for autonomous,
long duration and/or distance exploration missions." In particular, we
are conducting a ground-based investigation to measure and track the
factors expected to have significant impacts on team function and
performance, and assess that impact, over three high-autonomy missions
of differing durations (four, eight, and twelve months).
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