Abstract EANA2026-75

Understanding how interpersonal relationships form and evolve in confined, isolated environments is central to the design of long-duration space missions. This study presents a continuous, sensor-based analysis of social proximity patterns among an 11-person international crew during a 7-day analog mission, conducted under conditions simulating the operational and psychological constraints of planetary surface exploration.

Ultra-Wideband (UWB) wearable sensors (Estimote Wearable platform) were deployed across the entire crew, logging proximity events at sub-meter resolution with a 500 ms duty cycle. Raw data - totalling over 678 contact-hours across Days 2–7, with Day 1 excluded due to sensor familiarisation effects - were parsed from on-device EEPROM storage and analysed as a weighted temporal social network.

Two findings challenge commonly held assumptions about crew cohesion. Pre-existing bonds - including a confirmed pre-mission friendship and same-nationality pairings - did not predict bond strength during the mission. The strongest bond formed between crew members with no prior relationship, surpassing both same-nationality pairs and the pre-existing friendship pair by a factor exceeding two. Additionally, social density increased across the mission rather than declining, suggesting that accumulated fatigue drives crew members toward companionship rather than withdrawal.

These results have direct implications for crew selection, mission architecture, and real-time psychological monitoring protocols in future long-duration missions.