Person autonomy and voluntariness as important factors in motivation, decision making, and astronaut safety: First results from the Mars500 LODGEAD study

The present study aims to explore the influence of person autonomy and voluntariness on the level and orientation of motivation and decision making of crew members who live and work in extreme isolated conditions such as during long-term space flights. Motivation has been related to positive behavioural (e.g., goal-orientation), cognitive (e.g., attention), and psychological (e.g., well-being) outcomes and is likely to be relevant for safe and favourable extraterrestrial life- and working-conditions.The study has been carried out within the scope of the Mars500 study which includes a Mars mission simulation of 105 (pilot study) and 520 (main study) days and involves a multi-national crew of 6 men who lived and worked in hermetically sealed modules in the IBMP facilities in Moscow.Data have been collected by the use of questionnaires that evaluate the Mars experiment in terms of, e.g.
• information received (e.g., “My experiences here are in line with what I was told during the selection and instruction procedure”),
• perceived social pressure (e.g., “I don't feel free to make my own decisions”), and
• personal challenge (e.g., “I think that joining the first Mars mission would be a major challenge for me”).It is hypothesised that stronger (1) perceived information consistency, (2) personal expectation consistency, (3) perceived voluntariness, and (4) experienced freedom of choice will be indicative of higher motivation levels.The results will be interpreted in the light of communication, decision making processes, and mission safety. Also, moral expectations and ethical considerations regarding future participation in long duration Human missions such as Mars will be discussed. We will make use of descriptive, longitudinal pattern analyses and correlations.

► During isolation, crew autonomy did not change, but motivation was high and stable.
► Accurate information is positively related to crew autonomy and motivation.
► Adequate information help crew to prepare and to take autonomous balanced decisions.
► Crew has to learn to deal with knowledge gaps and reflect on self (positive autonomy).
► Crew need training to find balance in managing external stressors (negative autonomy).