{"id":428190,"date":"2026-05-02T05:34:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T05:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/428190\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T05:34:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T05:34:10","slug":"estel-blay-carreras-the-scientist-who-will-lead-an-arctic-expedition-simulating-a-mission-to-mars-eps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/428190\/","title":{"rendered":"Estel Blay Carreras, the scientist who will lead an Arctic expedition simulating a mission to Mars | EPS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Estel Blay Carreras, 39, has dreamed of becoming an astronaut since childhood. More than half of girls who aspire to a career in science<\/a> give up in adolescence, but that wasn\u2019t the case for her. She turned a fantasy into a professional future. She studied aerospace science, earned a doctorate, and held several jobs. Today, Blay Carreras \u2014 who lives in a residential neighborhood of Spain\u2019s Sitges with her family and two hamsters \u2014 greets us with a smile and wearing socks. She leads a seemingly conventional life, but in just over a year, she will be the next commander of a mission that will simulate an expedition to Mars on a remote Arctic island.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wake up happy, I go to work happy, and I come home happy,\u201d says Blay Carreras. And it shows. During the day, she manages one of the European programs at the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia, which funds projects using space technology for climate resilience. Afterward, she begins her volunteer work at Hypatia Mars<\/a>, a Catalan non-profit organization run by women that promotes space research, supported by universities around the world.<\/p>\n

The chosen site for the next mission is a base in Devon, in the Canadian Arctic. It\u2019s the area on Earth most similar to Mars. The nearest hospital is a four-hour flight away, and this is the first time an all-female team will be deployed. \u201cHere we\u2019re moving to another level of complexity, and for that, I have a plan A, a plan B, and a plan Z, so as not to put anyone at risk. My role is to make sure things happen, and happen well,\u201d says Blay Carreras.<\/p>\n

\"\"An illustration by Anna Bach Valls, who also participated in the last mission of Hypatia Mars.Lupe de la Vallina<\/p>\n

It will be the second simulation she takes part in. Last year, with Hypatia, she was in charge of health and safety during a 15\u2011day mission in the Utah desert, alongside six other women, also with the goal of reproducing Martian conditions<\/a>. In addition to looking after the team\u2019s well\u2011being, she took responsibility for three experiments. Together with the artist\u2011in\u2011residence Anna Bach Valls, she participated in the project Women Leave Their Mark, which involved creating a cross made of canvas large enough to be visible from space.<\/p>\n

The astronaut underscores the difficulty of that last project: moving around in astronaut suits, gloves and helmets; communicating only through radio; and transporting heavy loads \u2014 the survival backpacks \u2014 across the desert, among rocks, wind, dust and sun. \u201cWe had to simulate the conditions of a future colony on Mars. If we reach another planet, our capacity to build will be very limited,\u201d she explains. <\/p>\n

The space they inhabited was extremely cramped. Each room had only a bed, and the improvised gym was so tiny that they had to exercise in two separate shifts because they couldn\u2019t all fit. In a small greenhouse, they grew fast\u2011growing fresh vegetables such as arugula and herbs. They ate half a cherry tomato a day. Everything else was dehydrated food<\/a>: hamburgers, broccoli, butter. Each person was allotted just 13 liters of water per day \u2014 a far cry from the comfortable 130 liters estimated for everyday life in her home country.<\/p>\n

She has been isolated, in very small spaces, in hostile climates, eating little and eating poorly. One might wonder how she endures \u2014and even seeks out\u2014 so much discomfort. \u201cIt\u2019s an explosion of adrenaline and happiness,\u201d she reflects. \u201cWhen you\u2019re isolated, and they take the phone out of your hand, there\u2019s nothing else but the mission. You can almost think faster, because all your attention is focused on a single thing. My ability to concentrate was on another level\u2026,\u201d she says. Out of this world.<\/p>\n

In such conditions, it\u2019s almost impossible not to think about the possibility of death in an emergency. \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019m afraid of dying in the Arctic. If I call the hospital, I\u2019d obviously be breaking the simulation. In fact, if someone ends up with a leg in two pieces, the simulation, with all due respect, will have to wait for another time,\u201d she replies.<\/p>\n

In a few months, the team will begin preparing with an exercise routine, medical checkups, and a special diet. She no longer has the ambition to go to Mars \u2014 a goal also postponed by Elon Musk<\/a>. With the calm of someone who understands how things work, and the optimism of those who still have much to do, she says: \u201cThere are too many things on Earth that I love for me to go on a suicide mission to the red planet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sign up for our weekly newsletter<\/a> to get more English-language news coverage from EL PA\u00cdS USA Edition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Estel Blay Carreras, 39, has dreamed of becoming an astronaut since childhood. More than half of girls who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[605,61,60,91,82,97212],"class_list":["post-428190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-elon-musk","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-nasa","tag-science","tag-sitges"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}