Astronaut organization in spaceflight missions

During the selection of crew members, throughout their training and during their psychosocial adaptation to the mission environment, there are several opportunities to encourage optimal performance and, in turn, minimize the risk of failure.

Evidence linking crew selection, composition, training, cohesion or psychosocial adaptation to performance errors is uncertain.

[2][4][6][11][12][13][14] There has also been an analytical study to identify the skills necessary for long and short duration missions to inform the initial astronaut candidate selection process.

[12] In this study, twenty experts (including astronauts) rated 47 relevant skills on criticality and another 42 environmental and work demands on their probability of occurrence.

Long-duration space flights are so physically, mentally and emotionally demanding that simply selecting individual crew members who have the "right stuff" is insufficient.

[53] Leon Festinger cited three primary characteristics that define team cohesion: interpersonal attraction, task commitment and group pride.

Studies to determine the strength or willingness of individuals to stick together and act as a unit have most consistently assessed the level of conflict, degree of interpersonal tensions, facility and quality of communications, collective perceptions of team health and performance of the group, and the extent to which team members share perceptions or understandings concerning their operational context.

The ARI authors concluded that "cohesion can best be conceptualized as a multidimensional construct consisting of numerous factors representing interpersonal and task dynamics.

Psychosocial experts within the spaceflight community have articulated their concern that interpersonal conflicts and lack of cohesion will impede the abilities of crews to perform tasks accurately, efficiently, or in a coordinated manner during long-duration missions.

Research cannot effectively determine in a reasonable amount of time what minimum level of cohesion is required to avoid catastrophic failure.

Instead of investing research and time in such an endeavor, funding would be better used to test and identify effective means of building cohesion and promoting optimal performance in a long-duration mission context.

[71][72] Interpersonal conflicts, miscommunications, failures to communicate, and poor teamwork skills have been shown to contribute significantly to the rate of errors in the medical field.

While team members may correct each other, offer alternatives and argue about how to solve a problem, some level of task-related conflict can promote optimal performance.

It was found that: This last point was studied over a ten-year period, modeling individual and group effects on adaptation to life in an extreme environment using multilevel analysis (Category III).

[28][31][35] Studies that compare performance during simulated operations and training note that Leadership, or the ability to influence others toward achieving group goals,[87] may also play a role in team cohesion.

[88][89] This article incorporates public domain material from Human Health and Performance Risks of Space Exploration Missions (PDF).