Persistent Memory as Mission-Critical Infrastructure for Long-Duration Spaceflight: Addressing Continuity Burden in Isolated Human-AI Systems

Framework preprint presenting CAMA (Circular Associative Memory Architecture) as mission-critical infrastructure for crew psychological health during long-duration spaceflight. Introduces continuity burden as a proposed measurable construct quantifying the cumulative cognitive and emotional cost of stateless AI interaction in isolated environments. Identifies four failure modes of stateless AI in spaceflight contexts: slow-onset behavioral drift, compounding interpersonal conflict, cumulative disclosure fatigue, and false-positive stability assessment. Presents a worked scenario demonstrating longitudinal intervention capability across a 30-day Mars transit simulation. Proposes preliminary operationalization of continuity burden through psychometric instruments (Continuity Burden Inventory, NASA TLX subscales) and behavioral proxies. Includes risk-mitigation matrix, counterargument analysis, empirical performance data from a working prototype (52,622 stored memories), and proposed analog trial parameters. Paper 1 of 4 in the Applied Persistent Memory Series.