The psychological impact that astronauts undergo during space missions is a great concern for researchers. Several studies have been carried out on the ISS reporting, in some cases, psychological issues related to mood (ie. depression, homesickness, anxiety) or a common syndrome (Asthenization) that includes fatigue, sleep problems, irritability or emotion liability.
Thus, the importance of emotion management in isolated confined environments is crucial to understand how humans interact under extreme conditions where everything scales and emotions are magnified. Moreover, reports have shown that men end up taking the leadership in situations of stress, in mixed groups, even if the Crew Commander is a woman.
The fact that WoMars is an all-female crew, opens a very interesting line of investigation, as it rules out the gender influence and crew domination in mixed groups. This gives the perfect scenario to understand how women interact and collaborate without the presence of men.
To achieve conclusive results, WoMars is working in collaboration with Dr. Inga Popovaite, researcher at Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania. The research goal is to study the management of emotions in small groups under an isolated confined environment, such as the MDRS. The WoMars crew will report their mood and emotional state of the day by keeping daily journals with predetermined questions. These diaries will be analysed by Dr. Popovaite. Writing down in stressful situations helps focusing, calming one down and maintaining a healthier environment.
After the Nerio I mission, the crew will be interviewed by Dr. Popovaite to enable the crew to understand their emotions during the mission.
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Kanas, N. (2015). Humans in space: The psychological hurdles. Switzerland: Springer.
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