Astronauts going to Mars will need conscientiousness, experts say

The typical astronaut has a degree in science or math, has spent countless hours working as a pilot and is in good health, but the right things won’t matter to those trying to go to Mars – they’ll need “consciousness.”

A study by Western University found that space fairing heroes wishing to survive on the Red Planet will need to have an enthusiasm to do the right thing.

This personality trait has also been found to distance others as “honesty”, “humility”, “emotionality”, “extroversion”, “openness” and “agreeableness”.

Julia McMenamin, a PhD candidate in Western psychology, said: “Conscientiousness, an individual personality trait, can be seen as a group resource.”

“The more conscientious a team is, the better the ability to complete tasks will likely be.”

The results come from the four-week AMADEE-18 analog mission, which simulated a Mars environment characterized by isolated and extreme conditions, as well as exploring different personality traits to gather insights into how crews react to isolation during missions. of the real world.

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NASA is working tirelessly to send the first humans to Mars by 2030 and those chosen for the historic mission will spend time with a small group, in confined spaces and all will have to work together to survive in the Martian environment.

As the team will feel isolated and overcrowded, experts warn that conflict will surely arise, which has led Western University to investigate what attributes are needed to prevent wars from breaking out.

After the four-week experiment, the researchers asked the five astronauts to rate their team and themselves on several traits: humility and honesty, emotionality, pleasantness, extroversion, conscientiousness and openness to experience.

Surveys revealed traits such as “social laziness” or a team member’s habit of making less effort when working individually underlie a desirable trait.

These negative behaviors have been found to cause problems within the team and should be “non-negotiable for long space missions,” explained McMenamin.

“Anyone who has worked on a team knows that conflict between team members can hurt team performance and create a negative experience,” he said.

“When people argue about how to get things done or are in personal disagreements, there is less time and energy left to complete tasks.”

‘The interesting thing is that there are different types of conflict, and as long as you avoid interpersonal problems and discussions about how to get things done, differences of opinion and opinion could actually improve team performance, probably because this allows the team to take advantage of each member’s knowledge and perspective. “

Beyond conflict, acute stress can also negatively impact teams on Earth and in space, McMenamin said.

“Stress creates distractions, contributes to activity overload, increases destructive emotions or feelings of anxiety and worry, and makes it difficult for team members to coordinate their work,” he continued.

Given that this particular analog mission only lasted for about a month, the researchers are interested in how things might go over the course of a long-duration mission.

“The main problems caused by psychological distress and interpersonal problems don’t tend to manifest until months or even years spent in an isolated, confined and extreme environment, which highlights the need for longer-lasting simulations,” McMenamin said.

NASA astronaut Victor Glover, who recently flew to the International Space Station, discussed the importance of teamwork when conducting long-term space missions.

“It’s critical,” Glover said speaking to the National Air and Space Museum.

“It’s probably the one thing you’ll come back to more than any other science, technology or specific system you’ll have to work on inside the spacecraft or on the surface of another planet.”

“We spend a lot of time on training to take care of each other, ourselves and our team in order to accomplish our mission.”