SUBJECT: Official crew portrait for Artemis II, from left: NASA Astronauts Christina Koch, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, Canadian Space Agency Astronaut Jeremy Hansen. In June, NASA will begin the first experiment in a new 3D-printed Martian habitat at Johnson Space Center called the Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog, or CHAPEA. The current requirement is that crew members get 8½ hours of sleep per night on missions to avoid long-term sleep loss, fatigue-induced errors and health complications, according to NASA. The participants were tested for alertness and performance.įindings from the experiment showed that if crew members only got five hours of sleep one night, they needed more opportunities to catch up on sleep on subsequent nights to prevent the ill effects of sleep deprivation. Flynn-Evans was involved in a study in which crews spent 45 days in the habitat and were restricted to five hours of sleep on weeknights and eight hours on weekends. The habitat mimics the size of a lunar base or small spacecraft and can house crews of four people for long periods of time. The CHAPEA crew will live in a habitat with individual quarters at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. “We have what we call an analog space environment at Johnson Space Center called the Human Exploration Research Analog or HERA, and that’s basically a small habitat.” “We do fake space missions all the time,” Flynn-Evans said. The same tips that help astronauts sleep also apply on Earth, including following a regular schedule with waking and falling asleep at the same time as much as possible and limiting exposure to blue light before going to bed, which is emitted by LED TVs, smartphones, computers and tablets.Īlthough scientists have sleep data from years of spaceflight, conducting simulated missions on Earth allow for more control. Flynn-Evans and other researchers develop approaches to shifting sleep safely for the astronauts, such as determining when to take naps or stay up later to accommodate schedule changes. Some of the strategies involve managing when the astronauts are exposed to blue light, the primary synchronizing wavelength for the circadian system, and when to reduce blue light to help them sleep.Īstronauts have regimented schedules, but the arrival of resupply missions or new crews sometimes interrupt those. Once they reach the space station, each astronaut is shifted to Greenwich Mean Time, “a nice middle ground between all of the countries that participate,” Flynn-Evans said.Īt the Fatigue Countermeasures Laboratory, Flynn-Evans and her colleagues develop tools to help astronauts overcome sleep challenges. Jet lag begins before astronauts ever arrive at the space station, and their sleep schedules are shifted for days before liftoff based on the time of day and time zone from which they will launch. “We have to try to block out the light from windows during the night,” she said, “and we have to really try to maximize the light either through windows or with internal lighting to make sure the crew are getting that synchronizing stimulus so that they’re able to stay awake and asleep at the right time.”įormer Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi is inside a sleep station on the space station in April 2021. Rather than force the astronauts to adapt to such a strange cycle, experts at NASA have added lighting to the interior of the space station that mimics what people experience during a normal day on Earth. The space station orbits around Earth every 90 minutes, creating alternating cycles of darkness and light. “Light is what resets our circadian rhythm and keeps us organized to that day-night cycle, but in space we have several challenges,” Flynn-Evans said. On Earth, disruptions to circadian rhythm occur for people who work overnight shifts or experience jet lag while traveling across time zones. While the space station affords incredible views of Earth, the 16 sunrises an astronaut witnesses a day can wreak havoc on circadian rhythm, the body’s natural clock for sleeping and waking. But the longer you’re in close quarters with someone, the more disruptive that can be.” “If it’s for a couple days, probably no big deal. “I think of it like camping,” Flynn-Evans said. (Photo by NASA via Getty Images) NASA/Getty Images North America/Getty ImagesĪstronauts face mental and emotional challenges for deep space travel. Kelly and Kopra also tackled several get-ahead tasks during their three hour, 16 minute spacewalk. NASA astronauts Scott Kelly and Tim Kopra released brake handles on crew equipment carts on either side of the space stations mobile transporter rail car so it could be latched in place ahead of Wednesdays docking of a Russian cargo resupply spacecraft. IN SPACE - DECEMBER 21: In this handout photo provided by NASA, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly is seen floating during a spacewalk on Decemin space.
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