Industrial /Organizational Psychology Goes To Mars

Research by a group of PhD and doctorate level industrial organizational psychologist is guiding efforts to promote team cohesion among astronauts during the longest- ever manned space voyage: NASA’s planned 2030 trip to Mars. A team of few I/O psychologist are working on the different problems that would be faced in this mission. The mission will require the astronauts to live and work together in what’s known as an “isolated, confined and extreme” environment for almost three years — a team dynamic that is relatively unknown. While the Mars mission crew won’t be selected for several more years. The research that is being conducted is about understanding the team work, cooperation and adaptation with each other for over a period of three years. The researchers also that, ‘team are using their NASA funding to develop, implement and evaluate interventions to maximize space crew cohesion and mitigate negative psychosocial effects of long-duration missions, as well as measure crew cohesion over time. They’re focused on identifying stressors among spaceflight crews — such as lack of space and privacy — and working to pinpoint strategies, such as team self-correction and regulation, to help astronauts cope with such stressors during the mission. The astronauts will learn these strategies along with their more traditional technical training and anti-gravity acclimation’.