title: The use of micro-worlds for human factors research in extended spaceflight.
abstract: This article provides an analysis of the utility of micro-worlds for human factors research in extended spaceflight. It outlines potential areas of application of the micro-world research paradigm in the context of spaceflight. While the research literature provides several examples of micro-worlds that simulate different work environments of high complexity, little work has been done with this tool in the operational environment of spaceflight. The author presents a micro-world, called CAMS, that has been especially developed for use in space-related research. The results from a research programme (comprising seven studies using CAMS) are presented. Based on a comparative analysis of the benefits and limitations of micro-worlds compared to other simulation types, the author argues that micro-worlds can be a very effective tool, provided their inherent limitations are taken into consideration.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Bochum, Germany. sauerj@hrzl.tu-darmstadt.de
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sauer
mesh_terms: D018480:Astronauts / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology; D003198:Computer Simulation; D006804:Ergonomics; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006801:Humans; D008021:Life Support Systems; D012934:Social Isolation; D013026:Space Flight; D018561:Space Simulation; D018531:Spacecraft; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D014893:Weightlessness; D016526:Workload