title: Wireless Monitoring of Changes in Crew Relations during Long-Duration Mission Simulation.
abstract: Group structure and cohesion along with their changes over time play an important role in the success of missions where crew members spend prolonged periods of time under conditions of isolation and confinement. Therefore, an objective system for unobtrusive monitoring of crew cohesion and possible individual stress reactions is of high interest. For this purpose, an experimental wireless group structure (WLGS) monitoring system integrated into a mobile psychophysiological system was developed. In the presented study the WLGS module was evaluated separately in six male subjects (27-38 years old) participating in a 520-day simulated mission to Mars. Two days per week, each crew member wore a small sensor that registered the presence and distance of the sensors either worn by the other subjects or strategically placed throughout the isolation facility. The registration between two sensors was on average 91.0% in accordance. A correspondence of 95.7% with the survey video on day 475 confirmed external reliability. An integrated score of the "crew relation time index" was calculated and analyzed over time. Correlation analyses of a sociometric questionnaire (r = .35-.55, p< .05) and an ethological group approach (r = .45-.66, p < 05) provided initial evidence of the method's validity as a measure of cohesion when taking behavioral and activity patterns into account (e.g. only including activity phases in the afternoon). This confirms our assumption that the registered amount of time spent together during free time is associated with the intensity of personal relationships.
authors.affiliation: Division of Space Physiology, Institute of Aerospace Medicine, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Cologne, Germany.
authors.forename: Bernd
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Johannes
authors.affiliation: Division of Psychophysiology and Neurophysiology of operator's activity, State Research Center of Russian Federation, Institute for Biomedical Problems RAS, Moscow, Russia.
authors.forename: Alexej S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Sitev
authors.affiliation: Division of Psychophysiology and Neurophysiology of operator's activity, State Research Center of Russian Federation, Institute for Biomedical Problems RAS, Moscow, Russia.
authors.forename: Alla G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Vinokhodova
authors.affiliation: Division of Psychophysiology and Neurophysiology of operator's activity, State Research Center of Russian Federation, Institute for Biomedical Problems RAS, Moscow, Russia.
authors.forename: Vyacheslav P
authors.initials: VP
authors.lastname: Salnitski
authors.affiliation: Division of Psychophysiology and Neurophysiology of operator's activity, State Research Center of Russian Federation, Institute for Biomedical Problems RAS, Moscow, Russia.
authors.forename: Eduard G
authors.initials: EG
authors.lastname: Savchenko
authors.affiliation: Division of Psychophysiology and Neurophysiology of operator's activity, State Research Center of Russian Federation, Institute for Biomedical Problems RAS, Moscow, Russia.
authors.forename: Anna E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Artyukhova
authors.affiliation: Division of Psychophysiology and Neurophysiology of operator's activity, State Research Center of Russian Federation, Institute for Biomedical Problems RAS, Moscow, Russia.
authors.forename: Yuri A
authors.initials: YA
authors.lastname: Bubeev
authors.affiliation: State Research Center of Russian Federation, Institute for Biomedical Problems RAS, Moscow, Russia.
authors.forename: Boris V
authors.initials: BV
authors.lastname: Morukov
authors.affiliation: Research and Study Group in Human and Space Ethology, Ethospace, Toulouse, France.
authors.forename: Carole
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tafforin
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
authors.forename: Mathias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Basner
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
authors.forename: David F
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Dinges
authors.affiliation: Division of Space Physiology, Institute of Aerospace Medicine, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Cologne, Germany.
authors.forename: Jörn
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rittweger
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D018535:Mars; D012963:Sociometric Techniques; D013026:Space Flight; D018561:Space Simulation; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors; D059015:Wireless Technology