Andrea Silva Chavez

Andrea Silva Chavez

Biography

Andrea “Andy” Silva is a junior at the University of Central Florida majoring in Statistics and Data Science with a minor in Psychology. Her academic interests lie at the intersection of neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and human performance in spaceflight environments. She is particularly passionate about applying statistical methods to understand how emerging technologies and space conditions impact the brain. Her goal is to pursue a Ph.D. to inform evidence-based design that protects and enhances cognitive function in these extreme contexts. Andy has an interdisciplinary profile through her research in both neuroscience and space science. At UCF’sCognitive Science Laboratory, she investigates the cognitive effects of Galactic Cosmic Radiation in the context of long-duration space missions. She is an award-winning presenter, and the first author of a peer-reviewed paper approved for publication at the HFES Annual Conference.Recognized for her academic excellence and leadership, Andy was elected Student GovernmentPresident at Valencia College, her transfer institution, and selected as the Distinguished Graduateand commencement speaker for the Class of 2023. Outside of academia, she is a trained musician and singer who enjoys creative writing and reading literary fiction, history, and philosophy.

Abstract

Who Stays Calm on Mars? Emotion Regulation and Stress in Simulated Mars Mission: A Multilevel Approach

Long-duration space missions present unique psychological challenges, including elevated stress from isolation, confinement, and disrupted social dynamics. Understanding individual differences in emotional resilience is essential for crew selection and training. This study examined whether pre-mission emotion regulation abilities predict daily stress levels during simulated Mars missions. Data were collected from 56 participants across 19 crews stationed at the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS), who completed baseline measures of emotion regulation (DERS-18) and expressive flexibility (BEQ), followed by daily self-reports of stress throughout the mission. Using linear mixed-effects modeling, we accounted for repeated measures nested within participants and addressed heteroscedasticity in stress variability by modeling different residual variances across quartiles of emotion regulation scores. Results revealed a positive but non-significant association between emotion dysregulation and daily stress, and a marginal effect of expressive flexibility. While results were not statistically significant, the analysis framework provides a useful foundation for future investigations of emotion regulation in extreme environments. Findings have potential implications for
psychological screening and training in long-duration space missions.