NASA Seeking: Behavioral Health Emergency monitoring capabilities and expertise for spaceflight

Overview:

Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH) is seeking a comprehensive behavioral health monitoring solution for long-duration spaceflight. The ideal solution will combine both technological approaches and expert insights, specifically seeking technologies and/or experts who can help identify critical indicators of potential behavioral emergencies. We are interested in innovative monitoring solutions and interdisciplinary experts capable of defining and tracking the nuanced warning signs of behavioral health risks in extreme isolation environments.

Background:

Behavioral Health Emergencies pose a critical risk to astronaut safety and mission performance during long-duration spaceflight. These emergencies can manifest as depression, anxiety, interpersonal conflicts, or the onset of serious psychological conditions. Current monitoring approaches are insufficient to predict or identify these critical behavioral risks early in their development.

Desired Solution Characteristics:

The ideal behavioral health monitoring solution will:

• Required:
  • Identify warning signs of potential behavioral emergencies
  • Provide early detection of critical behavioral health events
• Nice to have:
  • Operate with minimal intrusiveness
  • Demonstrate greater-than-chance prediction of behavioral health risks
  • Have the potential to work/operate without cloud access
  • Have low mass, low power, and low volume requirements
  • Be compatible with spaceflight and spaceflight-analog environments
  • Operate with modest computational and storage requirements (comparable to a handheld device)

Possible Solution Areas:

Possible solutions include but not limited to:

• Non-intrusive monitoring technologies, for example
  • Facial micro expressions such as eye tracking
  • Keystroke analysis
  • Social interaction
  • Movement
• Behavioral Health experts to provide consultation on key indicators to track
• Databases to mine (or validated approaches) for identifying leading indicators of behavioral emergencies
• Physiological monitoring approaches e.g. Wearables

Preferred Collaboration Type:

Various partnership and collaboration opportunities are available, including direct purchase of mature solutions, co-development and consultation with experts on novel indicators to track 

Field of use and intended applications:

Behavioral health monitoring and predictive risk assessment for long-duration spaceflight missions

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