Behavior/Performance and Human Factors

This research project consists of three related components. 1) Cultural issues in space operations.There has been growing awareness that cultural factors can influence the nature of crewinteractions and can have significant influences on mission safety and effectiveness. Theproposed research builds on investigations by our project into the effects of national,organizational, and professional culture on human performance in commercial aircrews,medical teams and Antarctic research stations. Using an established model of national culturedeveloped by the PI, structured interviews will be conducted with ground and flight personnelof countries participating in the ISS. These data will be used to identify perceived problemareas in the multicultural environment of international space operations. This information willbe used to develop an assessment tool that can be used to identify cultural differences in safetyrelevant attitudes in ISS personnel. 2) Personality as a predictor of astronaut performance.Previous research by our project has demonstrated that personality is highly predictiveof performance in high stress and technically challeging environments. An initial investigationof the predictive power of personality on job performance in the astronaut corps was conductedby the PI and colleagues in the early 1990’s. The long duration nature of ISS missions furtherincreases the need to understand this relationship between personal characteristics andastronaut performance. An assessment of personality and performance will be completed onactive astronauts who volunteer to participate in this study. Personality will be assessed by abattery of psychometric measures developed by the PI in the early 1990’s. Performance will beassessed using a combination of peer and supervisory ratings. For astronauts who were activein 1992, at the time of our initial assessment, longitudinal comparisons of performance stabilitywill be assessed. In the PI’s earlier work, 77% of active astronauts completed the predictivepersonality battery along with 379 astronaut candidates in three selections. These data will beused to predict the multiple dimensions of performance relevant to astronaut selection and crewcomposition. The results should allow refinement of current select-in strategies for astronautand crew selection for long duration missions.Concurrent investigations by our research group have involved the application ofsimilar testing batteries to aircrew and Antarctic station personnel. Comparissons will bemade between personality profiles and perfomrnace predictors in these various environments. 3) Team coordination and communication during simulation.Previous research by our group has shown that team communication and coordinationare effective countermeasures to the various threats to safety that are found in complex anddemanding environments. The final component of this project will develop measures to assess team coordination and communication during spaceflight simulation, including assessments ofthreat and error management. These data will be collected through interviews with astronautsand other subject matter experts in conjunction with structured observation of space operationstraining. The resulting data could be employed in the development of a model of errormanagement that could be used in mission design and refinement of training and procedures. MALLEABLE HUMAN INTERFACES D. Russo, PhD., J. Whiteley, Ph.D.,NASA Johnson Space Center, SF1, Houston, TX 77058, Johnson Engineering, INTRODUCTIONTraditionally most NASA systems, including the human-centered human/machineinterfaces, have been discrete, purpose-built systems. Astronaut crews would face anenormous maintenance and training burden if each exploration mission had differentequipment, supplies and spares. Central and very critical to the successful performanceof these missions will be the human/machine system issues that must be resolved toenable continued successful human space flight missions. CURRENT STATUS OF RESEARCHThis is the culmination of the first year of a three-year project. The first activity to beaccomplished was to identify several tasks critical to the successful performance ofexploration type missions, which had human/machine system issues, and which must beresolved to enable continued successful human space flight. Of the tasks identified, thetask of performing a landing with a Surface Lander type vehicle on the surface of aplanet/moon, and identifying and incorporating display and navigation/safety displayideas for a rover type vehicle were selected as the tasks to go into further depth andevaluation. This selection was made with the help of the Exploration Office at JSC, asthey had identified planetary landings, especially in rough terrain, as a critical need totheir continuing activities. Our team selected this task, and secondarily the Rover task,on the basis that they both had a good mix of human interfaces issues, as well astechnology and automation content. Once the initial tasks were selected, we focused onthe assignment to identify whether we could actually host the task and accomplish theactivity within the Concept Exploration Laboratory using the virtual reality equipmentthat was available. This activity has taken the better part of the first year to accomplishand is still underway. One of the largest activities within this realm was learning thePilot Reconfigurable Intelligent Symbology Management System (PRISMS) andattempting to expand this virtual reality program from a Earth-centered helicopter flyingenvironment into space-based scenarios which would allow the development andinclusion of other environments such as Mars or the Moon, while still allowing the abilityto collect performance data. This effort was implemented to substantially save money bynot having to custom build an entire virtual environment and allowed the transfer ofpreviously gained PRISMS knowledge into this project. MethodsTo begin the first phase of the three-part project, critical tasks were determined throughinterviews and discussions with subject matter experts and team members alike. Onceseveral tasks were proposed, an investigation into the capabilities of the laboratoryhardware and software was accomplished to determine if particular tasks were bettersuited for the virtual environment than others. Two candidate tasks have been selected,based upon top-level comparisons and in-depth examinations into the softwarearchitecture and programming capabilities of PRISMS. As the project progresses, thePRISMS software will be modified and/or used as currently configured to create scenarios that are, in some manner, representative of the critical task/s. Now that it hasbeen determined that the visual information and/or performance data can be collected orviewed, more detailed analyses will be performed on the task. This will take us into thesecond phase of the three-part project. ResultsActual Mars terrain data has been successfully migrated into our terrain database andadditionally we have incorporated the atmospheric characteristics and gravitational fieldsof the Martian surface within this model. The team has effectively converted aComanche helicopter into a quasi-land roving model and has been able to have this modelinteract with the terrain. For example, the “Rover” vehicle can go through a simulatedrock/rough terrain area and interact with the rocks such that the Rover bounces as if, infact, it were contacting an object. There has been limited experimentation with notionalnavigational techniques to help the users traverse the surface without the aid of detailedmaps, using only virtual cues. At the conclusion of one of the discussion sessions with the Exploration Office atJohnson Space Center, they offered a copy of the 3-D conceptual Lunar Lander vehiclemodel they had developed to use in the simulator. After converting the 3-D model into ausable format, it was migrated into the virtual environment and manipulated. Viewingthe conceptual Lunar Lander in the virtual environment, while wearing the head mounteddisplay, provided the Exploration Office personnel with very unique information, since itallowed the developers to view the inside of their vehicle for the first time ever.Although the individuals had constructed the 3-D model, they had never actually beenable to view the inside of the Lander from the perspective of one viewing it as if theywere inside the Lander and looking around. This was a very enlightening experience, andhas significantly helped further the collaboration between both groups. ConclusionThis first year was a proof-of-concept to determine if we could model aspects ofidentified critical tasks using existing laboratory hardware and software, withoutrequiring expensive additions to the existing laboratory compliment. Our initial testshave demonstrated that we can be successful using the virtual environment that we havecreated within PRISMS as a foundation for our performance and baseline testing. Taskanalysis and display requirements work, along with experimenting with the performancemeasurement capabilities of our system, are activities that are scheduled and willdemonstrate the utility of performing concept exploration type projects/studies prior tomaking large commitments of research and development funding. FUTURE PLANSProceed into phase 2 of this project by selecting the primary critical task and focusingupon performing a top-level task analysis. INDEX TERMSHuman/Machine Interface, Concept Exploration, and Virtual Reality. INTEGRATED CREW PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT AND TRAININGRobert E. Schlegel, Randa L. Shehab, Kirby GillilandUniversity of Oklahoma