Project FUSION: Facilitating Unified Systems of Interdependent Organizational Networks

Long-duration space exploration missions (LDSEM) will include a number of challenges, one of the most significant is the organizational challenge of designing a well functioning social system involving a semi-autonomous multicultural and multidisciplinary flight crew working at an extreme distance from a large system of teams residing within one or more mission control centers on Earth. Project FUSION develops a concrete understanding of the specific factors that affect integration among teams within multiteam systems, networks of teams, who explore deep space. Northwestern will contribute to this project through the direction of Dr. DeChurch and Dr. Contractor and their respective laboratories.