AI system tailored to the Mars Exploration Analog

Background
The contract is issued by NASA's Human Research Program (HRP), specifically the Human Factors and Behavioral Performance Element. The study aims to enhance monitoring of team functioning during long-duration, isolated, and confined space missions, addressing the limitations of current self-report tools in detecting psychosocial risks.

By developing a speech-based AI system tailored to the Mars Exploration Analog (MEA), the project seeks to provide NASA psychologists with data-driven indicators for early detection of team-functioning risks and improved behavioral health support.

Work Details
The project involves assessing the feasibility and usability of a speech-based AI system for monitoring team functioning in the MEA. Key tasks include:
1) Adapting existing speech-based AI models to the MEA environment, evaluating acoustic and linguistic markers as predictors of team performance;
2) Designing AI indicators for Private Psychological Conferences (PPCs) by engaging operational psychologists to define output types, granularity, and visualization formats;
3) Integrating and evaluating the AI system during MEA mission operations, continuously assessing audio acquisition performance, preprocessing reliability, transcription quality, feature extraction stability, and model output alignment with independent indicators.

Major deliverables include a Technical and Research Report documenting findings and recommendations, a fully functional speech-based AI system adapted for MEA, an Operational Playbook for deploying AI tools in analog environments, and curated datasets.

Period of Performance
10/1/2026 – 09/30/2028

Place of Performance
Mars Exploration Analog (MEA)

Bidder Requirements
Bidders must demonstrate capability in developing speech-based AI systems with experience in machine learning model training and evaluation. Familiarity with psychological assessment tools and operational environments similar to MEA is preferred. Engagement with operational psychologists for system design feedback is essential.