Year-long Mars simulation ends, volunteers emerge

Yearlong Mars simulation ends, volunteers emerge

Four volunteers took place in the first long-term simulation
They lived in a 3D-printed environment, isolated from the outside
It's the first of several missions to study the challenges of colonizing Mars

Updated: Jul 8, 2024 / 07:00 PM CDT

The first CHAPEA mission crew members who have been living and working inside NASA’s first simulated yearlong Mars habitat mission pose for a photograph taken on June 25, 2024. (Credits: NASA)

(NewsNation) — Four volunteers have returned from Mars — or at least a simulation of the red planet, following a yearlong experiment on what colonizing the red planet would look like.

Anca Selariu, Ross Brockwell, Nathan Jones and Kelly Haston took part in a simulation that left them isolated for 378 days, with limited communication and food, in an effort to study possible challenges that would come from colonizing one of our closest galactic neighbors.

While Mars and Earth may share a neighborhood in the cosmos, that doesn’t mean they are close. It would take astronauts nine months to reach Mars and they would have to remain there for a minimum of three months before experiencing a launch window to return home.

NASA has been testing how that might work with shorter simulations, but the year the four spent living in a 3D printed replica of Mars as NASA attempted to test them on possible scenarios. The Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog is one key step in possibly settling humans somewhere other than Earth.

That included limited communication with Earth, isolating the volunteers for more than a year and examining the mental health impacts of living in a small, isolated environment. They operated with a communication delay of at least 22 minutes, making it difficult to communicate with friends or family, and were cut off from the internet and social media.

The crew also had to grow their own food or eat shelf-stable items since it would be next to impossible to get frequent, fresh food deliveries to a planet so far away. They were tasked with growing their own vegetable, something that would likely be necessary to establish a long-term presence on Mars.

The volunteers also took place in simulated Marswalks, complete with bulky spacesuits, and had to maintain the habitat and equipment without outside help or supplies.

The crew was visibly emotional as they emerged from the facility at the Johnson Space Center for the first time since the experiment began.

Mars Dune Alpha is only the first of several planned Mars simulations. Applications for the second round have already closed but if you’re hoping to find out what life might be like in outer space, you’re not out of luck. Applications for the third class are expected to open in the fall of 2025.