Analog Astronaut Self-Scheduling in NASA’s HERA Campaign 7

Abstract

Future deep space missions require greater crew autonomy, including self-scheduling—a novel operational concept. Within NASA’s Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA), we researched the impact of “No-Go Zones” software countermeasures, as prior findings suggested such visualizations might be beneficial. During HERA Campaign 7, we assessed analog astronaut crews’ self-scheduling performance (time on task, activity movements, violations) and workload (NASA-TLX). Unexpectedly, the countermeasures were associated with significantly poorer performance: increased time on task, more activity movements, and more violations. No significant workload impact was observed. A learning effect was evident between sessions, and Mission Day influenced all outcomes. We conclude that operational factors likely have a greater influence on self-scheduling performance than the tested software aids.