• Presented by Hopkins at Home and Bioastronautics@Hopkins

Human spaceflight missions are incredibly complex, and future missions to Mars will be more challenging and complex than any ever attempted. In these missions, it is certain that the unexpected will occur; not every possible problem can be identified and mitigated in advance. This takes us into the realm of resilience: the ability of a system to recover from an unexpected perturbation and continue to function, even if with degraded capabilities and altered goals. It is not yet clear how to formulate this approach to spaceflight, or how to implement it, but a recognition of the proper functional integration of the many systems involved is likely to be critical. While this panel’s expertise is primarily in the area of human health and performance, the discussion will include not just individual personal resilience but also the resilience of the overall mission.