Analog Astronaut Research

Exploring Human Experience Beyond Earth to Inspire Change on Earth

Blue Marble Project’s Analog Astronaut Research pillar investigates how humans adapt psychologically and socially in extreme, space-like environments. By participating in and analyzing analog missions, we gain insights into resilience, teamwork, isolation tolerance, meaning-making, and mental well-being that have relevance for future space exploration and everyday life.

What is an Analog Astronaut mission?

Analog astronaut missions simulate aspects of space travel on Earth. These environments mimic isolation, confinement, limited resources, and close-quarters teamwork that crews may experience in deep space or on planetary surfaces. Through participation and observation, analog astronauts study how people cope with stress, maintain motivation, solve problems collectively, and find psychological balance in extreme contexts.

This research informs not only space psychology but also clinical practice, leadership development, and community resilience.

Why Analog Research Matters

For Space Exploration: Helps mission planners and astronauts prepare for long-duration missions with evidence-based psychological strategies.
For Mental Health: Offers unique lessons on coping with stress, isolation, and uncertainty that are relevant to people on Earth.
For Community Education: Translates complex scientific experiences into accessible stories that expand public understanding of both human psychology and space science.

This work advances Blue Marble Project’s motto: Exploring Space, Inspiring Earth by making lessons from simulated extreme environments directly useful to everyday emotional and social well-being.

Key Projects and Participations

HI-SEAS Simulation (Hawai‘i Space Exploration Analog and Simulation)

Blue Marble Project (BMP) has participated in long-duration simulated Mars missions at HI-SEAS, where crews live and work under controlled conditions that resemble life on another planet. These simulations involve daily tasks, constrained resources, role-based responsibilities, and communal living, offering rich opportunities to observe human behavior under stress and prolonged isolation.

BMP's involvement included collecting data on:

Emotional resilience and mood regulation
Interpersonal communication and conflict resolution
Task prioritization and team coordination
Effects of monotony and sensory limitation

These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of human performance in isolation and strategies that support psychological health both in space analogs and in everyday life.

The World’s Biggest Analog (WBA)-MICO-VIE (Mission Control Vienna)

The World’s Biggest Analog (WBA) is the largest synchronized planetary analog mission ever attempted, uniting analog research stations and crews across the globe in a single coordinated simulation of future Moon and Mars exploration. From October 13 to 26, 2025, more than 200 scientists from 25 countries participated in this historic two-week campaign, involving 16 Moon/Mars habitat sites on five continents and coordinated by the Austrian Space Forum in Vienna.