{"id":530558,"date":"2026-07-03T05:22:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T05:22:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/530558\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T05:22:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T05:22:19","slug":"nasa-needs-volunteers-to-spend-a-year-locked-in-a-mars-simulation-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/530558\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA needs volunteers to spend a year locked in a Mars simulation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">More than 50 years after humanity\u2019s last trip to the Moon, NASA is preparing for its triumphant return as soon as 2028\u2014and laying the groundwork for the first crewed mission to Mars. But before astronauts can venture further into space, NASA needs volunteers to spend a year <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scientificamerican.com\/article\/the-astronaut-who-never-left-earth\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:pretending they\u2019re already there;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;pretending they\u2019re already there&quot;}\" class=\"link \">pretending they\u2019re already there<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The agency has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/humans-in-space\/nasa-seeks-volunteers-for-new-yearlong-simulated-moon-mars-mission\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:opened applications;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;opened applications&quot;}\" class=\"link \">opened applications<\/a> for its next Moon &amp; Mars Exploration Analog (MMEA) mission, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scientificamerican.com\/article\/my-year-on-mars\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:a year-long simulation;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;a year-long simulation&quot;}\" class=\"link \">a year-long simulation<\/a> that recreates the isolation, confinement and day-to-day challenges of long-duration space exploration. The goal isn\u2019t to demonstrate rockets or spacesuits, but rather, to put humans to the test.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Participants will <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scientificamerican.com\/article\/i-survived-a-weekend-at-biosphere-2-pretending-to-be-in-space\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:live and work;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;live and work&quot;}\" class=\"link \">live and work<\/a> inside specially designed habitats while researchers study everything they can, from crew dynamics and mental health to habitat operations and mission procedures. The crew will carry out scheduled maintenance tasks, complete scientific experiments, respond to simulated emergencies and settle into routines that could define life millions of miles from Earth.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scientificamerican.com\/newsletters\/?utm_source=yahoo_news&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=feed\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:Sign up for Today in Science, a free daily newsletter from Scientific American and join a community of science-loving readers.;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Sign up for Today in Science, a free daily newsletter from Scientific American and join a community of science-loving readers.&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Sign up for Today in Science, a free daily newsletter from Scientific American and join a community of science-loving readers.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">NASA does this because getting humans to Mars isn\u2019t just about building a big enough rocket\u2014it\u2019s about making sure every aspect of life so far away from Earth is optimized for success.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Perks of the MMEA mission include virtual reality spacewalk simulations and a mandatory social media detox.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The program builds on two existing NASA analog missions: HERA (Human Exploration Research Analog), which studies the effects of isolation during spaceflight, and CHAPEA (Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog), which simulates life on the Martian surface. The next MMEA mission is expected to begin no earlier than August 2027, giving NASA time to select and train the crew for their year of isolation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 50 years after humanity\u2019s last trip to the Moon, NASA is preparing for its triumphant return&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[61,60,10674,167005,225813,91,82,178906],"class_list":["post-530558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mars-exploration","tag-mission-to-mars","tag-mmea","tag-nasa","tag-science","tag-trip-to-the-moon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530558","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=530558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}