Communication quality in extreme environments affects performance of astronauts and their support teams through increases in workload: Insights from the AMADEE-20 analog Mars mission

TL;DR

Effective communication in extreme environments, especially with delays, significantly impacts astronaut and support team performance and satisfaction by influencing workload and frustration levels, as shown in the AMADEE-20 Mars analog mission.

Contribution

This study demonstrates how specific facets of communication quality directly affect team performance and satisfaction in delayed communication scenarios, providing insights for future Mars mission training.

Findings

Clarity of objectives improves team performance.

Information flow reduces frustration and enhances satisfaction.

Communication quality facets influence workload and mission success.

Abstract

Astronaut crews and ground control support teams are highly interdependent teams that need to communicate effectively to achieve a safe mission - despite being separated by large distances. Team communication quality with its facets clarity of objectives and information flow is a key coordination process to achieve high team performance and task satisfaction. Especially in interdependent teams working in extreme environments with time-delayed communications, the team's success depends on effective communication. We hypothesized that communication quality affects two key team outcomes, performance and task satisfaction, and that these effects can be explained by increased workload (effort and frustration). Hypotheses were tested during the AMADEE-20 analog Mars mission of the Austrian Space Forum. The analog astronauts (AA) were supported by an On-Site-Support (OSS) team and a remote Mission-Support-Centre (MSC) team. The MSC was the only contact for both AA and OSS, and the communication between them had a one-way delay of 10 minutes. Our study consisted of three runs in which members of each team had to exchange information to solve an interdependent task. We measured communication quality, effort and frustration, task satisfaction, and team performance. Results show that clarity of objectives and information flow positively impacted multiteam system performance. Furthermore, clarity of objectives reduced experienced effort which in turn enhanced team performance. High levels of information flow reduced experienced frustration, in turn enhancing task satisfaction. Our findings show that these facets of communication quality are essential for multiteam systems that work separated from each other. We stress that specific (team) communication training for astronauts and support personnel will be key to effective teamwork during future Mars missions, and thus to overall mission success.