{"id":520272,"date":"2026-04-08T21:32:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T21:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/520272\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T21:32:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T21:32:11","slug":"theyve-been-on-mars-for-six-months-heres-how-its-going","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/520272\/","title":{"rendered":"They\u2019ve been on \u2018Mars\u2019 for six months. Here\u2019s how it\u2019s going"},"content":{"rendered":"

While Artemis II focused attention 250,000 miles away on the moon, a separate venture testing the boundaries of human exploration has been unfolding a stone\u2019s throw from Nasa\u2019s mission-control centre.<\/p>\n

At Mars Dune Alpha, a 3D-printed habitat at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas, four volunteers are taking part in Chapea-2, a simulated 378-day expedition that has them isolated from the outside world with limited resources, tight living space and constant pressure to adapt.<\/p>\n

The two missions are worlds apart but share a common goal: learning how humanity can survive beyond Earth.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s great progress for humanity to be sending crews back to the moon over 50 years since our last visit,\u201d James Spicer, Chapea-2\u2019s flight engineer, told The Times by email (no phones allowed on \u201cMars\u201d).<\/p>\n

\u201cFuture Artemis missions and missions to Mars will be shaped by the lessons learnt from Artemis II as well as from analogues such as Chapea \u2026 the knowledge that we\u2019re an early piece of the puzzle is a big motivation behind our work every day in the habitat.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Chapea mission \u2014 which stands for Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analogue \u2014 is based in a 1,700 sq ft habitat inside a hangar at JSC.<\/p>\n

Spicer, a private-sector aerospace engineer, was selected along with Ross Elder, a US air force test pilot, Ellen Ellis, an acquisitions officer in the US space force and Matthew Montgomery, a hardware engineer and independent film producer. They entered the habitat on October 19 last year and will emerge on October 31 this year.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Chapea-2 crew. From left: Ross Elder, Ellen Ellis, Matthew Montgomery and James SpicerNASA\/CHAPEA<\/p>\n

Each has a small single bedroom. There is a shared toilet and shower, living room and kitchen. Daily activities are modelled on the real challenges of working on Mars. There are simulated \u201cMarswalks\u201d in a yard filled with red sand, robotics operations involving drones and vehicles, geology tasks such as rock identification, habitat maintenance chores, physical exercise and cultivating crops.<\/p>\n

Their work will help guide the planning and design of future missions to Mars. The purpose is also to investigate behavioural health and how the crew adapts and responds to stressors such as isolation, confinement and equipment failures.<\/p>\n

The sacrifices are real: no fresh fruit for months, no spontaneous visits home and no casual conversations with friends. Food is an assortment of dehydrated and thermo-stabilised options, similar to those used by the military.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough we\u2019re not replicating the effects of microgravity or deep-space radiation, there\u2019s a lot we can learn on the ground. Travelling to Mars alone will likely take more than six months; understanding the nutritional requirements and physiological needs of the crew is critical to mission success,\u201d said Ellis, the crew medical officer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many aspects of this study that fascinate me. How do you design a habitat that effectively meets the crew\u2019s needs? What are the major stressors for a long-duration mission? How do you optimise space for crew collaboration? What are good strategies for managing constrained resources?\u201d<\/p>\n

Communication with their handlers and families is via email only and subject to delays of up to 22 minutes, simulating the lag between Earth and Mars.<\/p>\n

\"AInside the team\u2019s living quartersJSC\/NASA\/SWNS<\/p>\n

\"TwoJSC\/NASA\/SWNS<\/p>\n

Spicer, who grew up in Worcestershire before moving to the US, credits the patience of friends whose emails, voice notes and photos are \u201ca lifeline to the outside world\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have no real-time communication with friends, family or ground-support staff,\u201d he said. \u201cWe must be able to make decisions autonomously as a crew, often with no time to wait for a clarifying question to travel to Earth and a response to make it back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have also faced various equipment failures and had to compensate with workarounds using the materials we have with us. We do have a 3D printer, which has proved useful in creating some spare parts \u2026 hopefully lessons learnt from how our systems are failing and how we\u2019re maintaining them will be used to better equip future Martian and lunar crews.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spicer spent a decade working in radio and laser-satellite communications and spacecraft assembly, integration and testing. In the habitat he has been busy \u201cmaintaining everything from our clothes washer to our fitness equipment to our carbon-dioxide scrubber\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

Montgomery, as a technologist, is fascinated by the hardware, vehicles and systems that Nasa will need to fulfil its goal of landing on the moon and its missions to Mars.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut \u2026 ultimately, the integration of that technology along with peak human performance is what\u2019s required to further exploration. That human piece is foundational to the Chapea campaign and imagining those brave explorers who venture to Mars drives me daily,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As science officer, one of his responsibilities is managing the hydroponic crop-growth system, growing lettuce, tomatoes, peppers and herbs. Fresh produce is otherwise absent from the menu.<\/p>\n

Elder is a test pilot and had just completed a tour of duty as the director of operations for the F-35 test force at Edwards Air Force Base, California, when he was selected to be Chapea-2\u2019s commander.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe transition to Mars explorer has felt both surreal and familiar in many ways. The rapid training we endured as a crew at JSC was quite akin to learning a new aircraft,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile some might revel at the thought of getting away for 378 days, isolation and confinement is a significant challenge. There are no opportunities to feel the sun on your skin or the wind in your hair. The habitat instantly became our place of work, our gym, our recreation centre and ultimately our home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taking a walk outside isn\u2019t a walk outside; it\u2019s an \u201cextravehicular activity\u201d or Eva, in Nasa speak. At Mars Dune Alpha, that means stepping outside a door marked \u201cairlock\u201d and into an area of red sand wearing a spacesuit, or on to a treadmill wearing a virtual-reality system that simulates the Martian landscape.<\/p>\n

When he took his first steps on the mock-Martian surface with a crewmate, Elder said they had \u201cgrins stretched across our faces\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a very surreal moment to execute our first Eva mission far beyond the aid of Earth,\u201d he said. \u201cEach Eva brings new challenges and risks and can vary in focus from exploration to maintenance, or geology in lava tubes to constructing additional modules.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AThe team go for simulated \u201cspacewalks\u201d in red sandDanielle Villasana<\/p>\n

\"TwoDanielle Villasana<\/p>\n

The crew has found joy in little things. Elder is learning Russian, has a \u201chefty library\u201d of digital books spanning team dynamics, self-help and professional development and plays his harmonica and banjo. Spicer took a keyboard with him to provide an \u201cendless supply of music\u201d. Montgomery\u2019s idea of \u201cdown time\u201d is reading scientific papers on geology.<\/p>\n

Ellis has been reading anything from Mars-themed fiction to papers on team dynamics. She has two nephews in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, and dropped in on one of their Scout-troop meetings virtually before the mission.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kids asked great questions about Mars and were aghast to learn that we won\u2019t get to eat ice cream for a whole year,\u201d she said. \u201cI find it very motivating and meaningful that our crew is participating in work that will help enable the next generation of space explorers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under the Artemis programme, Nasa aims to land humans on the moon in 2028. Artemis II was a test flight of the Orion spacecraft that will take them into lunar orbit.<\/p>\n

Elder said: \u201cThe data that we drive and collect will change how future crews live on the surface of Mars \u2026 we wish the Artemis II crew Godspeed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While Artemis II focused attention 250,000 miles away on the moon, a separate venture testing the boundaries of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":520273,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[90,416,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-520272","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-space","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=520272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/520273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}