Stress assessment during a simulated EVA

Stress is a psychological factor that affects humans in all aspects of life and especially during long duration, multinational space missions. Stress may lower the working moral and performance and increase the apprehension of an unknown environment, which can lead to miscommunication between the crew. The "Stress Assessment During a Simulated EVA"-experiment was a simulated Hubble repair mission, which utilized an underwater scuba diving environment to investigate the stress experienced during a simulated Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA). The paper addresses the issue of team performance and stress in extreme environments. Heart rate and blood pressure were measured a week before the experiment, just before the dive, and immediately after the dive. The participants also had to fill out questionnaires that assessed their perceptions of the environment, team performance, and stress levels. There were many stressful aspects during the repair mission, for example lack of scuba diving experience, being under water for so long, breathing air from a regulator, maintaining buoyancy, and performing within a team milieu under time deadline. The simulation proved to be an illuminating experience at both the individual and group performance levels as the environmental impact pervaded all aspects of task and group performance.