The Story of 520 days on a Simulated Flight to Mars

0459520 - PSÚ 2017 RIV GB eng J - Journal Article
Poláčková Šolcová, Iva - Šolcová, Iva - Stuchlíková, I. - Mazehóová, Y.
The Story of 520 days on a Simulated Flight to Mars.
Acta Astronautica. Roč. 126, č. 10 (2016), s. 178-189. ISSN 0094-5765. E-ISSN 1879-2030
Grant - others:AV ČR(CZ) StrategieAV21/14
Program: StrategieAV
Institutional support: RVO:68081740
Keywords : Mars-500 * Narrative * Peak experience * Nadir experience * Isolation * Flight Story Interview
Subject RIV: AN - Psychology
Impact factor: 1.536, year: 2016
Method of publishing: Open access
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094576515301983?via%3Dihub

The project Mars-500 was the first long-term simulation of a manned flight to Mars. We examined the ways crew members described their experiences and their life during simulation, what they saw as key episodes and key topics in simulation, as well as key problems and key benefits. The aim of this paper is to present the Mars-500 simulation in its complexity, from beginning to end, as a one narrative story. Method:Two weeks after the end of isolation we used narrative qualitative interviews in order to understand the unique experience of the crew members living and working in isolation and confinement. During our ‘Flight Story Interview’(an adaptation of McAdams ́s Life Story Interview) crew members reconstructed a story about their life in a module and revealed important points and processes during simulation: crew members identified and described the peak experience, nadir experience, turning points, important scenes and challenges and other narrative moments that create a story of a simulated flight to Mars. The narratives were subjected to horizontal thematic analysis. The story reconstruction completes quotes from crew member ́s diaries published online by the European Space Agency. Results:The results showed that for the crew members the peak experiences of simulation were cele-brations, video messages from significant others, and the Mars landing, and that the most difficult moments were connected with delay or loss of communication and monotony during the second half of the experiment. The turning points were connected with the Mars episode. Crew members highlighted other crucial scenes and topics of the project Mars-500 in their narratives, and stressed the issues of food,coping strategies, or benefits of cultural heterogeneity in an extreme and confined environment.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0259745