Engineering topics
Keeton, Kathryn
Publications and source records attributed to Keeton, Kathryn.
Subjective Sleep Experience During Shuttle Missions
It is now known that for many astronauts, sleep is reduced in spaceflight. Given that sleep is intimately tied to performance, safety, health, and well being, it is important to characterize factors that hinder sleep in space, so countermeasures can be implemented. Lessons learned from current spaceflight can be used to inform the development of space habitats and mitigation strategies for future exploration missions. The purpose of this study was to implement a survey and one-on-one interviews to capture Shuttle flyers' subjective assessment of the factors that interfered with a "good nights sleep" during their missions. Strategies that crewmembers reported using to improve their sleep quality during spaceflight were also discussed. Highlights from the interview data are presented here.
Perspectives on Asthenia in Astronauts and Cosmonauts: Review of the International Research Literature
The Behavioral Health and Performance Element (BHP) is one of the 6 elements in the NASA Human Research Program (HRP) and is responsible for managing 4 of the identified and named risks to human health and performance from human space exploration: a) Risk of Behavioral Conditions (BMed), b) Risk of Psychiatric Disorders (BMed), c) Risk of Performance Decrements due to inadequate Cooperation, Coordination, Communication and Psychological Adaptation within a Team (Team), and d) Risk of Performance Errors due to Sleep Loss, Circadian De-synchronization, Fatigue and Work Overload (Sleep). Each risk is reviewed by a NASA HRP Standing Review Panel (SRP), and recently the Behavioral Medicine Risk of Psychiatric Disorders was reviewed. The aim of this report is to address one of the recommendations made by that panel, specifically the recommendation that the "literature on asthenia should be evaluated (possibly as a psychological or psychosomatic / psycho-physiological analogue of chronic fatigue syndrome)" (SRP p. 4), in addition to General Recommendation 4, which states that "all reviews must include non-English language materials as well as materials appearing in conferences reports, books, and other non-refereed journal outlets" (SRP p. 2).
Houston, We Have a Problem Solving Model for Training
In late 2006, the Mission Operations Directorate (MOD) at NASA began looking at ways to make training more efficient for the flight controllers who support the International Space Station. The average certification times for flight controllers spanned from 18 months to three years and the MOD, responsible for technical training, was eager to develop creative solutions that would reduce the time to 12 months. Additionally, previously trained flight controllers sometimes participated in more than 50 very costly, eight-hour integrated simulations before becoming certified. New trainees needed to gain proficiency with far fewer lessons and training simulations than their predecessors. This poster presentation reviews the approach and the process that is currently in development to accomplish this goal.
Astronaut Demographic Database: Everything You Want to Know About Astronauts and More
A wealth of information regarding the astronaut population is available that could be especially useful to researchers. However, until now, it has been difficult to obtain that information in a systematic way. Therefore, this "astronaut database" began as a way for researchers within the Behavioral Health and Performance Group to keep track of the ever growing astronaut corps population. Before our effort, compilation of such data could be found, but not in a way that was easily acquired or accessible. One would have to use internet search engines, read through lengthy and potentially inaccurate informational sites, or read through astronaut biographies compiled by NASA. Astronauts are a unique class of individuals and, by examining such information, which we dubbed "Demographics," we hoped to find some commonalities that may be useful for other research areas and future research topics. By organizing the information pertaining to astronauts1 in a formal, unified catalog, we believe we have made the information more easily accessible, readily useable, and user friendly. Our end goal is to provide this database to others as a highly functional resource within the research community. Perhaps the database can eventually be an official, published document for researchers to gain full access.
Exploration of Habitability Factors Influencing Short Duration Spaceflight: Structured Postflight Interviews of Shuttle Crewmembers
Astronauts report significant difficulties with sleep during Space missions. Psychological, physiological, and habitability factors are all thought to play a role in spaceflight insomnia. Crewmembers gain experience with the spaceflight sleep environment as their missions progress, but this knowledge is not formally collected and communicated to subsequent crews. This lack of information transfer prevents crews from optimizing their capability to sleep during mission, which leads to fatigue and its potentially deleterious effects. The goal of this project is astronauts with recent spaceflight experience to gather their knowledge of and insights into sleep in Space. Structured interviews consisting of standardized closed and open-ended questionnaires are administered to astronauts who have flown on the Space Shuttle since the Columbia disaster. It is hoped that review and analysis of the pooled responses to the interview questions will lead to greater understanding of the sleep environment during short duration spaceflight, with attention placed on problem aspects and their potential solutions.