The Assessment of Psychology in Extreme Environments (APEX) Suite: Standardized Measures for Research and Operations

Future space exploration missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond will require small teams of humans to work and live in isolated, confined, and extreme (ICE) environments for long durations. Research in space and space analog settings is conducted to understand how ICE environments affect the psychology of astronaut teams and test interventions that will enable astronauts to survive and thrive. While research has been conducted for decades, the culmination of findings has been somewhat limited, resulting in researchers advocating for the use of standard measures that can allow for small sample research to be directly comparable. To address this issue, we iteratively refined a standardized suite of brief and targeted measures focused on psychological functioning, interpersonal and team dynamics, and sleep and performance called the Assessment of Psychology in Extreme Environments (APEX) Suite. The APEX Suite includes a set of validated self-report measures, performance tests, and physiological biomarkers that quantify individual and team-level responses to the conditions expected for individuals and teams operating in long-duration, extreme environments such as astronaut crews, mountaineering teams, forward operating military units, and search-and-rescue teams. This article describes the APEX Suite to allow for broader use of the measures in small-sample, extreme environment research, with opportunities to extend the measures into operational uses. By doing so, we aim to enable greater comparability across studies and contribute towards a cumulative, more powerful dataset that can facilitate our understanding of behavioral health and team dynamics in preparation for future exploration-class missions.