Privacy in space

Astronaut missions require crew members, who come from various educational and social backgrounds, to co-exist and work with one another for a prolonged period of time in an extremely confined and isolated environment. Additionally, whilst working within the space environment, astronauts are subjected to continuous monitoring of their daily living activities and previous research suggests that decreased access to privacy can induce increased levels of psychological and physiological stress, thus producing risk factors which may hinder cohesion within the crew. For this reason, the present study evaluates how the implementation of a privacy shelter within the sleeping environment during an Analog Astronaut Mission may affect the sleep quality, physiological and psychological stress parameters of crew members during their period of isolation. The aim of this study is to gain a better insight into how potential mitigators to stress, such as privacy shelters within the bedroom module, may be introduced to further facilitate effective crew dynamics, and improve the overall likelihood of a space mission’s success. Materials and Methods: 4 male and 2 female Analog Astronauts underwent mental state and cognitive function testing, sleep cycle recordings and physiological parameter analysis before, during and after sleeping within the shared bedroom module without a privacy shelter for the first three nights of their mission. Following this, 2 control subjects then continued the rest of their mission sleeping within the previous conditions and the 4 other test subjects were provided with a privacy shelter. Test parameters, along with crew mission reports were then analysed to assess whether increased access to privacy during their sleeping hours would result in any significant effect on their psychological and physiological well-being as well as overall crew dynamics.