Human travels in space and time from ethological perspectives

Abstract

Regarding space exploration by human travelers, our viewpoint is to consider the core concept of adaptation, in which strengths overtake weaknesses. The interpretation of findings, whether it be in physiology, in psychology, in anthropology, in ergonomics, or in robotics should properly converge in a positive direction that gives men and women their place at the heart of the spatial and temporal system. This has many facets. One facet is a self-organized system where heterogeneity of the components and autonomy of the whole are characteristic features that contribute to its proper functioning and to the success of exploration missions. Would it be the operating rule for crewmembers of future missions to the Moon and Mars? Isolated and confined crews in synergy with extended periods of time are actually facets to highlight as impacting factors. Ethological research is used to draw up these scientific hypotheses by applying its methods in various space simulation settings, analogous environments and experimental campaigns. Focusing on the recent data over the last 3 years, we found modern contributions in different research areas from multidisciplinary approaches. A comprehensive account of how crews self-organized their schedules with regard to work routine and social activities during three Mars analog missions of 4-month duration, 8-month duration and 12-month duration outline group-living habits that evolved similarly with high autonomy (Heinicke et al., 2019). The authors describe common features that developed in a similar direction when each crew was faced with isolation and confinement in the same setting with increasing mission time. They emphasize sociopsychological, group coordination and team performance challenges of long-duration space travels along with technical and operational challenges. In new science frameworks on the behavioral biology of teams, other investigators described key components of these extreme environmental systems that can interact with neurobiological systems as individual-level inputs influencing dynamics over the crew life cycle (Landon et al., 2019). Their emphasis is on food and nutrition, exercise and physical activity, sleep-wakework rhythms and habitat design. What we know about social group dynamics for longdistance space missions is found in analog research (Bell et al., 2019), in which space crews are expected to cope with psychologically, cognitively, physically and operationally demanding conditions that they have never encountered. The researchers revealed specific outcomes regarding conflict, cohesion, efficiency, mood or communication with the Mission Control Crew (MCC). For instance, the nature of conflict was examined under a new concept mapping based on a more nuanced typology, i.e., noted discords, work disagreements, interpersonal tensions and interpersonal OPEN ACCESS