NASA Crew Emerge After a Year in an Earthbound Simulated Mars Habitat

Members of a NASA mission to Mars have now exited their crafter after spending over 12 months in NASA’s first simulated Mars environment at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The crew entered the 3D-printed habitat on June 25, 2023, as the crew of the space agency’s Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog project (CHAPEA).

The team lived and worked inside the 1,700 square foot (157 square meters) area, in a quest to simulate a mission to the neighboring planet, Mars.

The transit period to Mars would take about nine months each way.

The first CHAPEA crew concentrated on creating possible conditions for future Mars operations via simulated spacewalks and by even growing and harvesting vegetables.

They also focused on potential challenges a real Mars crew would have to face which included limited resources, isolation, and delays in communication of up to 22 minutes with Earth.

Steve Koerner, Deputy Director of Johnson Space Center, said most of the crew’s experimentation focused on nutrition and how that affected their performance. The work was “crucial science as we prepare to send people on to the red planet,” he said.

“They’ve been separated from their families, placed on a carefully prescribed meal plan and undergone a lot of observation,” the Deputy Director said.

Science officer Anca Selariu said she had been asked several times why there is an obsession to visit Mars.

“Why go to Mars? Because it’s possible,” she said. “Because space can unite and bring out the best in us. Because it’s one defining step that ‘Earthlings’ will take to light the way into the next centuries.”

If you value our journalism…

TMJ News is committed to remaining an independent, reader-funded news platform. A small donation from our valuable readers like you keeps us running so that we can keep our reporting open to all! We’ve launched a fundraising campaign to raise the $10,000 we need to meet our publishing costs this year, and it’d mean the world to us if you’d make a monthly or one-time donation to help. If you value what we publish and agree that our world needs alternative voices like ours in the media, please give what you can today.