How to design a space habitat that supports its residents’ mental health

In extreme environments, such as those found in space travel, habitats are designed with a focus on the health and well-being of their occupants. These conditions pose unique challenges, including limited space, remote communication with Earth, and a high number of hazards. As humanity plans for longer missions to the moon and eventually Mars, it becomes increasingly important to design living spaces that not only ensure survival but also promote mental, emotional, and social wellbeing among the crew.

Engineers at MIT and other institutions are exploring ways to create such habitats by examining the relationship between habitat design features and behavioral health outcomes like stress, anxiety, and feelings of isolation. To help visualize this relationship, they have developed an interactive online platform that users can explore to understand how different aspects of habitat design impact human behavior in space.

The team, led by PhD candidate Mich Lin, assembled their findings through a thorough literature review and expert interviews. They identified numerous studies on the influence of habitat design on specific behaviors, such as the impact of lighting on an astronaut's sleep quality. However, this is the first time that researchers have brought together information on the relationship between habitat design and overall wellbeing, visualizing the connections and potential risks associated with a habitat's design.

The insights presented in this study, published in the journal npj Microgravity, can be applied not only to space habitats but also to other extreme, isolated, and confined environments, such as submarines, oil rigs, polar expeditions, refugee camps, and war zones. By understanding the impact of habitat design on human behavior, engineers can identify points of intervention to reduce stress and improve the overall experience for occupants in these challenging environments.

The researchers modeled their design tool after the risk mapping format used by NASA, which maps out associated risks in the form of "directed acyclic graphs" (DAGs). These DAGs resemble large webs of relationships that illustrate how certain habitat or mission features can affect various mission-relevant outcomes, such as physical health, sleep quality, cardiovascular impacts, and cognitive function.

Lin's team looked to create a similar DAG format, but instead of mapping physical health outcomes, they focused on behavioral health outcomes like stress, boredom, trust, nostalgia, curiosity, and kinship with crewmates. They identified 14 main emotions or experiences that they considered behavioral outcomes that could be influenced by habitats in extreme environments.

To prioritize a human-centered perspective, the researchers referenced Brené Brown's "Atlas of the Heart," which identifies 87 emotions and experiences that define what makes us human.

By mapping the connections between habitat design features and behavioral health outcomes, the researchers have created a comprehensive resource to help habitat designers create spaces that support the mental, emotional, and social wellbeing of their occupants.