Behavioral Health and Performance Laboratory Standard Measures (BHP-SM)

The Spaceflight Standard Measures is a NASA Johnson Space Center Human Research Project (HRP) project that proposes to collect a set of core measurements, representative of many of the human spaceflight risks, from astronauts before, during and after long-duration International Space Station (ISS) missions. The term "standard measures" is defined as a set of core measurements, including physiological, biochemical, psychosocial, cognitive, and functional, that are reliable, valid, and accepted in terrestrial science, are associated with a specific and measurable outcome known to occur as a consequence of spaceflight, that will be collected in a standardized fashion from all (or most) crewmembers. While such measures might be used to define standards of health and performance or readiness for flight, the prime intent in their collection is to allow longitudinal analysis of multiple parameters in order to answer a variety of operational, occupational, and research-based questions. These questions are generally at a high level, and the approach for this project is to populate the standard measures database with the smallest set of data necessary to indicate further detailed research is required. Also included as standard measures are parameters that are not outcome-based in and of-themselves, but provide ancillary information that supports interpretation of the outcome measures, e.g., nutritional assessment, vehicle environmental parameters, crew debriefs, etc. The project's main aim is to ensure that an optimized minimal set of measures is consistently captured from all ISS crewmembers until the end of Station in order to characterize the human in space. -This allows the HRP to identify, establish, and evaluate a common set of measures for use in spaceflight and analog research to: develop baselines, systematically characterize risk likelihood and consequences, and assess effectiveness of countermeasures that work for behavioral health and performance risk factors. -By standardizing the battery of measures on all crewmembers, it will allow the HRP to evaluate countermeasures that work for one physiological system and ensure another system is not negatively affected. -These measures, named "Standard Measures," will serve as a data repository and be available to other studies under data sharing agreements.