NASA volunteers set to live in a simulated Mars habitat for a whole year

The simulation is part of ongoing preparations for the first crewed mission to the faraway planet
The Planet Mars. Creator: Nasa.
The mission will be the first of three one-year Mars surface simulations
Getty Images
Charlie Duffield23 June 2023

Four NASA mission members are about to enter a simulated Mars habitat, as part of their training for the first crewed mission to the red planet.

It’s situated at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

The four volunteers - Alyssa Shannon, Ross Brockwell, Kelly Haston, and Nathan Jones - will utilise their experience spanning science, engineering, and health.

Here are the details of the galactic mission.

How long will the volunteers spend there?

The four volunteers will spend 378 days on the specially designed, enclosed habitat from Sunday, June 25.

What will it involve?

The mission will be the first of three one-year Mars surface simulations, called CHAPEA (Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog).

The volunteers will experience similar challenges to the real mission to Mars, such as limited resources, confinement, equipment failures and environmental problems.

There will be communication delays that real crews will experience, because of the enormous distance between Mars and planet Earth.

The crew will take part in activities such as undertaking scientific research, looking after crops, maintaining the habitat and performing “Marswalks”.

Their health and performance will be monitored to give the mission planners a better idea of how a crew might handle certain aspects of the long-duration mission to the red planet.

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The CHAPEA habitat is a 1700-square-foot space with nine rooms, including private bedrooms, a shared bathroom and toilet.

There is a common area where people can gather together for meals and socialising.

In addition, there is a small area next to the habitat that simulates the Martian surface for the Marswalks.

It was constructed using large 3D printers, which are part of the research in addition, with similar construction methods able to be used on Mars.

It’s thought that the first human crew will head to Mars in the late 2030s.

To date, the only other celestial body that humans have traveled to is the moon, with Mars’ greater distance and harsher environment presenting a far greater challenge for mission planners.

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