Content analysis of the crew communication with external communicants under prolonged isolation

The communication between space crews and outside monitoring personnel in Mission Control gives us valuable information about crewmember psychological health. Studying the formal parameters of similar communication during ground-based space simulation missions helps us understand the psychological climate of confined groups over time, and this information can be applied to long-term space missions.

We hypothesized that psychological closing and information filtration will be observed in a confined crew as the mission progresses and will differ by the type of communication (e.g., audio vs. computer-generated) with the outside monitors in the simulated Mission Control (MC). In addition, communication patterns will vary with the specific group of people on-duty outside.

Audio and computer communications between space simulation crews and MC teams were analyzed during two isolation studies lasting 135 and 90 d at the Institute for Biomedical Problems in Moscow. A number of temporal, content and quantitative parameters of verbal activity were examined.

The total intensity of communication dropped after month 1 of the missions. The Commander had the highest intensity of communication. There was evidence for the presence of psychological closing and information filtration in the crews over time, with some variation based on type of communication. Communication patterns differed with different outside teams.

The communication between confined groups and outside monitoring personnel is affected by psychological closing and information filtration and by the make-up of the teams that comprise the monitoring groups.