Psychology and Human Performance in Space Programs

In Psychology and Human Performance in Space Programs: Extreme Application, operations experts from multiple space agencies, with support from spaceflight researchers, outline existing and proposed operations for selecting, training, and supporting space crews who currently live and work on the International Space Station, and who are preparing for future missions to the moon and Mars.

Highlighting applied psychology in spaceflight whilst acknowledging real-world complexities that occur when integrating across an international, multi-agency collective, this volume provides both historical and current perspectives toward spaceflight operations, with expert contributions from NASA and international partners such as the Japanese Space Agency, Russian space researchers, and the Canadian Space Agency. Helpfully outlining the progress that has been made so far, this book includes topics such as the selection and hiring of astronauts, the process of training a crew for a mission to Mars, and workload and mission planning. Discussing operational psychology in space and on the ground, this book looks to the future of research and operational needs for future missions to Mars, with an essay from astronaut Dr. Don Pettit on his experiences in space and how the Mars mission will challenge us in new ways.

This second of two volumes will be of interest to professionals in the field of human factors and psychology in extreme environments.

Dr. Lauren Blackwell Landon is the Team Risk Discipline Scientist in the Human Factors and Behavioral Performance (HFBP) Element, a division of the NASA Human Research Program. In addition to overseeing team-oriented psychological research at NASA, she also conducts research in the HFBP Behavioral Health and Performance Laboratory. Her research targets teams in extreme environments, examining the influence of individual and team-oriented characteristics, and teamwork processes and team cognition as it affects team performance and functioning. She has a Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology, and has published 15 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters and an edited book “Team Dynamics Over Time."

Dr. Kelley Slack is a Senior Researcher on the operations side of Behavioral Health and Performance at NASA Johnson Space Center where she is involved with the psychological selection of astronauts. Dr. Slack is also a founding member of Minerva Work Solutions, an industrial-organizational consulting firm that provides evidence-based team training and team building, organizational development, and executive coaching. Her interests include resilience and adaptation in extreme environments and training soft skills. Dr. Slack has a Ph.D. in Industrial-Organizational Psychology and is a licensed psychologist in the State of Texas. She has published over 20 book chapters and articles in peer-reviewed psychological and aeronautical journals.

Dr. Eduardo Salas is the Allyn R. and Gladys M. Cline Chair, Professor, and Department Chair at Rice University. His research interests are uncovering what facilitates teamwork and team effectiveness in organizations; how and why team training work; how to optimize simulation-based training; how to design, implement, and evaluate training and development systems and generating evidence-based guidance for those in practice. Dr. Salas is a former president of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology and of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. The author of hundreds of research articles and dozens of academic books, he has also received many awards including the American Psychological Association’s Award for Outstanding Lifetime Contributions to Psychology.