Four volunteers have completed a year-long stay inside a NASA Mars simulation habitat in Houston, Texas, leaving the site to applause and cheers, according to live images from the U.S. space agency. The three men and one woman ended the second mission of NASA's CHAPEA program, which is designed to study how crews cope with isolation and the demands of a future mission to Mars.
Ross Elder, Matthew Montgomery, James Spicer and Ellen Ellis spent the past year in the windowless Mars Dune Alpha habitat, which was built with a 3D printer and covers 160 square meters. They were not allowed to leave during the mission. Their tasks included growing plants, maintaining the living area and machines, and exercising.
The habitat was modeled on the idea of life on Mars. It includes sleeping cells about two by three meters in size, a living room with a television and armchairs, work desks with computers and a medical station. In a small outdoor area, the crew simulated operations on the Martian surface.
The volunteers were partly responsible for their own medical care and had to take regular blood samples, Ellis said in a NASA podcast shortly before the mission ended. Elder said at a press conference after the mission that the crew was honored and proud to contribute to the effort aimed at eventually sending the first humans to Mars. Spicer joked that he was excited to go outside and experience the sun for the first time in more than a year, or perhaps a heavy rain shower depending on the weather. Ellis said she was most looking forward to hugging her husband.
Spicer said he was surprised by the amount of reports and protocols the crew had to complete, joking that typing would be a key skill for future Mars astronauts. Communication with family and friends was possible only in "Mars time," meaning even sending a short SMS took about 22 minutes. Spicer said he received around 4,000 emails from family members and friends during the mission and described them as a lifeline.
The participants were not trained NASA astronauts. Applicants had to be between 30 and 55 years old, healthy and motivated, non-smokers, and hold U.S. citizenship or permanent residency, a university degree in a science field and at least 1,000 flight hours.
A different group of four volunteers spent about a year in isolation at the site between 2023 and 2024. The next CHAPEA mission is planned for 2027. NASA says the program, whose name stands for Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog, is intended to help it send humans back to the Moon and later to Mars.
CHAPEA is not the first experiment of its kind. NASA previously gathered experience and data through its Hi Seas missions at a simulation site in Hawaii. European, Russian and Chinese space agencies attempted something similar nearly 15 years ago with the Mars 500 project. In August, the European Space Agency and the German Aerospace Center ended the Solis100 study in Cologne, in which three men and three women aged 26 to 32 spent 100 days in isolation.
Sources: Tagesschau.