Four volunteers are months into NASA’s year-long Mars simulation, gathering crucial data on human survival for future Red Planet missions. Olivia Palamountain reports. Four volunteers are currently midway through more than a year sealed inside NASA’s 3D-printed Mars habitat simulator named Mars Dune Alpha.
The second Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analogue (CHAPEA) mission began in spring 2025, confining the volunteers inside the 1,700 sq ft structure at NASA’s Johnson Space Centre in Houston, for 378 days. The habitat, developed by Danish architecture firm BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group), includes private living quarters, a gymnasium, a vertical farm for growing crops, a medical bay and a robotics work area, alongside a 1,200 sq ft “sandbox” filled with red sand that replicates the Martian surface beneath an inflatable dome.
Participants will experience realistic communication delays of up to 22 minutes each way when contacting mission control or family members, matching the time it takes radio signals to travel between Earth and Mars. The crew was selected following an application process that closed in April, and represents the middle mission of three planned CHAPEA experiments, with the third scheduled to begin following this mission’s completion in 2026. The selected participants will receive compensation for their involvement in the mission.
Crew members conduct simulated spacewalks lasting up to six hours using virtual reality headsets whilst walking on special treadmills that replicate Martian terrain. Daily tasks will include operating drones and rovers, maintaining equipment, conducting scientific experiments, exercising and tending the vertical farm to grow crops such as tomatoes and peppers to supplement freeze-dried meals.
Read more at Globe Trender
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Publication date:
Wed 27 Aug 2025