As space missions move away from near-Earth orbit to Lunar and subsequently Mars missions, the ability to carry out autonomous activities becomes critically important. Autonomous missions rely minimally on Earth-based Mission Control. Autonomy is accomplished by automating vehicle functions, and by transitioning responsibilities from Mission Control to crew.

Having the absolute best training for astronauts on these types of missions is essential for improving human spaceflight operations. NASA seeks a system that provides real-time operations support to astronauts – optimized and tailored to each of their psychophysiological states. This system will be used during training leading up to the mission.

Using several biometric sensor inputs, Topcoder members will create an integrated system that categorizes a trainee’s cognitive state in real-time. Sensor data will be combined and used to predict an individual’s cognitive state no less than 3 seconds in the future based on their current state.

• What are Topcoder challenges?
• Metrics to Evaluate Classification Algorithms
• Feature Engineering in Data Science and Machine Learning