Lunar-Teams Project
1 -month mission at LunAres Research Station
Preflight dates (4-5 days)
26.08.2024 – 30.08.2024
Mission dates (28 days)
31.08.2024 – 27.09.2024
Postflight dates (1-2 days)
28.09.2024 – 29.09.2024
Crew size
6 crew members
In collaboration with the University of Zurich – Applied Team Research, Department of Psychology, LunAres Research Station is organising a 1-month long analog mission. The project is open for candidates’ applications and research proposal submissions. The mission’s primary goal is to realise the extended simulation, focusing on human factors, psychology, and medicine. To learn more about the project, please read the Lunar-Teams Project Announcement document.
Project funded by the University of Zurich.
PROJECT GOALS
- Address the critical psychological and psychosocial challenges faced by crew members during extended spaceflights, such as isolation, confinement, disrupted sleep, monotony, and forced interpersonal relationships, and how these impact their well-being and mission success.
- Examine the longitudinal effects of prolonged space missions on human behaviour and group cohesion, especially for missions extending up to one month, such as those on the International Space Station or future Lunar Gateway visits.
Develop predictive models to understand and anticipate the social networks and individual well-being within astronaut teams, which are crucial for successful long- and medium-duration space exploration missions.
- Examine how individual well-being affects team contributions and how team members’ engagement or disengagement under stress can impact overall team resilience and mission success.
MISSION CALLS
Crew Call
DEADLINE – 27.03.2024
Minimum requirements:
- Education (fulfil at least one of the following)
- MSc degree (also in progress)
- PhD studies
- Junior or Senior researchers
- Professionals
- Required skills and knowledge
- The level of English language proficiency should be minimum upper intermediate/fluent
- Relevant skills and experience benefit the application
- Background (at least one of the following, or other relevant)
- Space Science
- Engineering and technology, Aerospace Engineering
- Medicine, Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology
- Biology, Earth Science
- Architecture and design
- Other fields will be accepted if the motivation for participation and presented skills could bring additional and unique competence to the crew.
- Availability during the planned mission dates and mission preparation
The mission is conducted following a diversity and inclusion approach. Everyone meeting the minimum criteria is welcome to apply.
The selection criteria are presented in the Lunar-Teams Project Announcement document.
Research Call
DEADLINE – 18.04.2024
Research Scope:
- Psychology – Studies on crew dynamics, psychological responses to stressors and mission architecture factors, well-being, and performance in isolation and confinement (ICE) conditions;
- Extreme Medicine – human factors, endurance, physical performance in variable conditions, health, aspects of microbiology, chronobiology, in the medical context of the isolation, studying behavioural stressors, team cohesion, crew autonomy, circadian rhythms, diet;
- Architecture (ergonomics, well-being, station telemetry and operation)
- Experiments on plant growth (hydroponic, aquaponic, aeroponic units available)
- Geological and planetary science studies
- Test of technological equipment for EVA simulations
- The research proposal can suggest other topics.
Standard LunAres Data will be gathered and available for the researchers during the mission. Currently, there can be up to 50 different types of data gathered. The Data concerns human and environmental telemetry, and mission architecture. To learn more regarding the available Standard Data, fill in the research proposal form.
The criteria for the research proposal evaluation are presented in the Lunar-Teams Project Announcement document.
To learn more about the research limitations, requirements and disclaimers please read the Lunar-Teams Project Announcement document.