Xenos Consulting
Psychology for extreme environments.
About
Xenos
Xenos is a consulting firm providing psychological support in extreme environments, human spaceflight, and human performance. We tailor psychological expertise in topics including screening and selection, preparation and training, post-mission rehabilitation, space habitats, space tourism, and environmental psychology. We work with both individuals and organisations through consulting and coaching. Our vision is to support a rapidly growing commercial space industry and sustainability on Earth.
Director - Konstantin Chterev
Konstantin is the director of Xenos Consulting, specialising in the psychology of extreme environments and offering services in the field.
He is a Psychologist & Research Director at SAGA Space Architects. In 2020, he directed research for a two-month Arctic mission which tested a prototype lunar habitat called “LUNARK”. The project later won an Index Award in 2021. He is leading research for their Circadian Light experiment currently on board the International Space Station.
Konstantin is a Human Spaceflight Consultant at Blue Abyss, providing insights and psychological recommendations for human spaceflight. He also works on research with organisations including NASA, the University of Minnesota, the University of Surrey, and the Austrian Space Forum. He also provides support to student organisations including Mission Asclepios, designing crew selection processes for isolation missions, as well as conducting psychological interviews with final candidates.
Konstantin has worked as staff for the International Space University, providing psychological support for both staff and participants, leading coaching programs, and assisting program creation. He has worked for the Austrian Space Forum, supporting their extreme environment missions through expertise in group dynamics, selection and screening, and organisational performance. He served as Team Lead at the 2016 ASE Planetary Congress in Vienna, personally assisting astronauts Georgi Ivanov, Helen Sharman, and Chiaki Mukai.
He holds a BSc and MSc in Psychology from the University of Surrey, winning a Chancellor’s Scholarship. His theses looked at group dynamics in extreme environments and organisational leadership in the NewSpace industry respectively. He is currently a PhD student at the university, researching environmental psychology in space habitats and the commercial space industry. He is an alum of the International Space University and provided psychological expertise in a team project sponsored by NASA & ESA. He won an ESA-BIC and ISU Start Up Award in collaboration with D-MARS for educational isolation missions.
Consulting
Xenos is a consulting firm providing psychological support in extreme environments, human spaceflight, and human performance. We specialise in topics including screening and selection, preparation and training, space habitats, space tourism, and environmental psychology. We work with both individuals and organisations in their goals through consulting and coaching.
As a psychological firm we stress and ensure strict confidentiality with every client. As part of any contract, we provide a confidentiality agreement. The psychological well-being of individuals and groups is a key foundation of Xenos.
Our clients have included individuals, small businesses, educational institutes, and non-profits.
“Xenos played a key role in preparing us for our Arctic expedition by providing psychological theory and application for our habitat and crew. Xenos also helped provide measurable results from our expedition that inform our continued innovation in space habitation.
Based on our mission’s success, we plan to work with Xenos again in our upcoming projects and habitats.”
— Sebastian Aristotelis, Co-Founder of SAGA Space Architects, Index Award Winner 2021
“Xenos was ideal for providing the cognitive, psychological and team dynamic specialist knowledge underpinning the astronaut selection service provision requirements of Blue Abyss. We were very pleased indeed with the quality, reliability and ease of service provision provided by Xenos.”
— Professor Simon Evetts, Research and Development Director at Blue Abyss
Screening & Selection
We have experience in the screening and selection of individuals in extreme environments. With a combination of practical and academic knowledge, we help individuals with self-improvement before selection, and work with organisations to design and conduct selection processes. In the space industry we assist in efforts to further enable access to spaceflight, especially with opportunities provided through a rapidly growing commercial sector.
Preparation & Training
We work with individuals and teams in a variety of extreme environments including deserts and the Arctic. Our preparation includes topics such as psychological resilience, group dynamics, and personal motivation. We also provide support to family and friends prior, during, and after expeditions, as well as facilitating strategies for well-being and performance.
Post-mission Rehabilitation
We work with extreme environment crew in their post-mission phase, assisting reflections and feedback on their experiences, as well as aiding their return to “normal”. We also provide qualitative and quantitative reports on missions, taking individual and crew experiences and feedback to an organisational level. We have also assisted in providing qualitative feedback in organisational training courses with both industry and academia.
Space Habitats
We have assisted in space habitat design and construction from a psychological foundation, tailoring theory and practice to ensure crews not only survive, but thrive. We adopt approaches such as biophilia, attention restoration theory, and place theory to help create spaces suitable for a variety of functions. We work on topics including privacy, lighting, flexibility, noise, colour, and clutter.
Space Tourism
We offer tailored services for space tourism drawing from our experience with extreme environments. We can assist individuals looking to fly in psychological preparation, preparing for the challenges involved and methods available to tackle them.
We are available for psychological research in space tourism. Through experience in screening, selection, preparation, rehabilitation, and space habitats, we provide an independent body which can assist space tourism companies with psychological factors in spaceflight.
Environmental Psychology
We hold experience in several sub-disciplines of psychology including social and personality psychology, focusing on environmental psychology. We investigate human interaction with the environment as well as perspectives towards the natural and urban world. We offer research services to study human-environment relationships in both the everyday and the extreme.