On long duration spaceflights, astronauts will be responsible for remedying emergency situations. These situations may be life-threatening and highly stressful. Acute stress can have detrimental…

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) awarded a $142,879.23 grant to Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University) to research the use of virtual reality (VR) training to improve astronaut resilience and performance during acute stress events in long-duration spaceflight. The grant aims to develop an adaptive VR training system that can measure physiological stress response and in-training performance, and adjust stress levels to help astronauts become inoculated to high-stress situations. This research aligns with the Human Research Program (HRP) roadmap gap BMED1, which calls for countermeasures to promote behavioral health and performance during exploratory class missions. The contract does not have a set-aside designation.

On long duration spaceflights, astronauts will be responsible for remedying emergency situations. These situations may be life-threatening and highly stressful. Acute stress can have detrimental effects on attention, memory, perceptual-motor performance, judgement and decision-making. The HRP roadmap GAP BMED1 calls for "...countermeasures that promote individual behavioral health and performance during exploratory class missions." while traditional emergency training practices are focused on performance outcomes, research into countermeasures should investigate stress-training techniques for acute stress in life-threatening situations to prevent adverse behavior and performance degradation. Recent advances in virtual reality (VR) environments provides the capability to simulate stressors over multiple sessions in a realistic task setting, until realistic stress levels are achieved. A virtual reality training system that is able to adapt based on the crew member's stress response may help foster resilience. By measuring participant's physiological and performance metrics, the adaptive system would allow graduated exposure of stress levels within a suitable biometric and performance ranges. Activating the stress response, while simultaneously assuring the crew member is not overwhelmed, may facilitate inoculation to the stress. Further, the automated training would be beneficial during long duration missions where ground support and training resources are limited or unavailable. This research aims at measuring physiological stress response and in-training performance, while evaluating adaptation rules and triggers. By using stress training to familiarize and prepare crew members for future stressors, a reduced state of anxiety and increased cognitive resources enabling enhanced performance are expected.