Serious games for team training and knowledge retention for long-duration space missions

NASA's Johnson Space Center is working with Stottler Henke to improve teamwork skills for long-duration space missions. Numerous factors, however, make instilling teamwork skills into deep-space astronauts extremely challenging. First, due to communication difficulties and mission duration, teams must be trained in a wide variety of domains - from maintenance procedures throughout the ship, to extremely thorough medical training, to science evaluations. Second, there may be a significant delay between when such knowledge is acquired and when it is needed; for instance, several years may pass between an astronaut learning how to diagnose, and to treat, a collapsed lung. Third, training must anticipate a huge range of conditions; the sheer length of deep-space missions when compared to shuttle missions vastly increases the number, and scope, of possible situations that could arise, making it virtually impossible to train for every scenario. To face the myriad challenges of deep-space flight, inflight training must be readily available. Our solution is a low-fidelity simulation using game-based training that leverages our experience with intelligent tutoring system (ITS) technology. Game-based training is engaging - it provides an entertaining break from the more onerous aspects of deep-space flight. Moreover, it incentivizes practice of amorphous, but critical, teamwork skills, motivating crews to practice more frequently for either mission-related team training or generalizable team skills training. Finally, a game-based solution addresses the problem of finding the physical space in which to train when a small crew is constrained in a cramped environment for extended periods of time. This paper reviews the process of creating games based on firefighting on the International Space Station (ISS) and Medical Training. We review the process of analyzing the firefighting procedure to determine the teamwork skills involved; how those skills were mapped to game mechanics; what changes were made to try to make the experience more engaging; and finally, whether these changes were effective.