On Sunday , four researchers donned black jumpsuits and record into a red mankind where they will spend a year go and work in a faux Martian surroundings .
NASA ’s CHAPEA home ground , or Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog , welcomedits volunteer guests this week , who are set to drop 378 days in the enclosed , Mars - comparable world to help the quad government agency groom for future missions to the Red Planet .
“ I feel incredibly lucky and consecrate to be a part of this crew and the mission , ” research scientist Kelly Haston , one of the four player in the on-going study , tell during a insistency briefing before record the habitat . “ It is a career and personal highlight to be both scientist and screen subject and grow datum that may enable young methods and safer blank space travel . ”

The simulated Mars habitat includes a 1,200-square-foot sandbox with red sand to simulate the Martian landscape.Photo: NASA
CHAPEA ’s 4 person crew just entered their dwelling for the next year . They ’re simulating a Mars mission to help appraise wellness and carrying out in relation to Mars resourcefulness limitations in closing off and lying-in . The door is formally closed and the mission has begun . Go Crew 1!pic.twitter.com / KKWKQ1opwg
— NASA ’s Johnson Space Center ( @NASA_Johnson)June 25 , 2023
Hatson , along with structural engineer Ross Brockwell , emergency music physician Nathan Jones , and U.S. Navy microbiologist Anca Selariu , were selected in April for the study . NASA had sent out acall for volunteersin 2021 for “ sizable , motivated ” U.S. citizens between the ages of 30 to 55 to take part in the first of three yr - long mission .

The habitat includes four individual living quarters for the volunteer crew.Photo: NASA/Bill Stafford
The 3D - printed , 1,700 - square - foot habitat is located at NASA ’s Johnson Space Center in Houston , Texas . It has a kitchen , two bathrooms , private bedrooms , a body of work field , as well as a amateur region for socialization .
“ The habitat will simulate the challenges of a mission on Mars , admit resourcefulness restriction , equipment failure , communicating delays , and other environmental stressors , ” NASA write in astatement .
Inside the simulated Martian environs , the four volunteers will carry out different activities as though they were on a mission to Mars , include simulated spacewalks , robotic operations , habitat care , personal hygiene , physical exertion , and crop outgrowth .

“ The analog is critical for examination solutions to meet the complex needs of exist on the Martian surface , ” Grace Douglas , lead scientist for NASA ’s Advanced Food Technology research effort at NASA ’s Johnson Space Center in Houston , say in astatement . “ Simulations on Earth will aid us understand and counter the physical and mental challenge astronauts will face before they go . ”
NASA , with the supporter of its international spouse , eventually hopes to send human being to Mars and mayhap establish a sustainable presence of astronaut in home ground on Earth ’s neighboring planet . Mars is a wry , arid desert with a slight , carbon - dioxide - fill atmospheric state and freezing temperatures during its winter time of year . Those other - secular factors are probable to make astronauts ’ time on Mars a niggling uncut , which is why the place agency wants to be prepared for the challenges out front .
“ The simulation will permit us to collect cognitive and physical performance information to give us more penetration into the potential impacts of foresighted - length missions to Mars on work party health and carrying into action , ” Douglas said . “ Ultimately , this entropy will help oneself NASA make informed decisions to design and plan for a successful human mission to Mars . ”

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Exploration of MarsNASAThe Martian
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