Incorporating Crewmember Biomeasures for Spaceflight Task Readiness Assessment, Real-Time Performance Feedback, and Task Design Option Evaluation

Continuous monitoring of crewmember operational state offers several applications for spaceflight operations and design, as explored here, including: 1) task readiness assessment, 2) real-time performance feedback, and 3) task design option evaluation. Operational Concepts (OpsCons) were developed that summarize what it would take to implement the first two applications in a spaceflight environment, while the third is proposed as a means of complementing Equivalent System Mass (ESM) analysis during the early design phase. The three applications were conceptually demonstrated for their intended uses using a suite of physiological sensors and other inputs. For the first application, a scripted task readiness assessment scenario was conducted to highlight spaceflight-relevant technologies in an operational setting during an integrated capstone demonstration as part of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Space Technology Research Institute (STRI) Habitats Optimized for Missions of Exploration (HOME) project. Physical activity threshold monitoring was then examined that incorporated extravehicular activity- (EVA-) relevant, real-time performance feedback to the operator. Finally, the impacts from imposing varying pilot task loads were investigated during simulated entry, descent, and landing operations to demonstrate task design evaluation workload considerations. Each activity is described and lessons learned from the demonstrations are summarized, along with related prior test participant experiments, to provide insight for integrating a crewmember operational state assessment into future human spaceflight operations and human-centered design evaluations.