Assessment of the effects of isolation, confinement and hypoxia on space-flight piloting performance for future space missions - The SIMSKILL experiment in Antarctica

Interplanetary human missions to Mars and beyond will suppose a very demanding physical and psychological environment for future astronauts. Isolation, confinement, hypoxia or hypercapnia in a reduced pressure atmosphere, darkness and other factors are expected to endanger a mission's success, directly influencing human performance. In order to study the effects of such environmental conditions on human beings, the SIMSKILL Experiment aims to investigate how spacecraft piloting performance decays over time by deploying a Soyuz flight simulator on the Antarctic research stations Halley VI and Concordia, which feature similar living conditions as those of a space mission, leading to muscular atrophy, loss of cognitive capacities, and reduction of psycho-motor skills. This paper offers an up-to-date analysis on the recorded data from the scientific campaigns in Antarctica, compared to those of the control group subjects in Stuttgart. An overall total of 69 subjects and more than one thousand approach and docking flights to the ISS performed in the simulator have been analysed using mathematical models. The results obtained from this analysis show how the influence of isolation, confinement and hypoxia in Antarctica is crucial to understand how differences in performance appear between subjects. A thorough assessment of collective trends is presented, by showing how reaction times, error events, visual perception, among others, are essential parameters to understand a pilot's skill evolution and propose optimal training and maintenance of acquired skills should be defined in future space missions.