NASA’s Mars Habitat Simulated Earth Crew Emerges

The crew of a NASA mission to Mars has stepped out of their ship after a year-long journey that never left Earth.

The four volunteer crew members spent more than 12 months in NASA’s first simulated Martian environment at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, emerging from the artificial alien environment around 5 p.m. Saturday.

Kelly Haston, Anca Selariu, Ross Brockwell and Nathan Jones entered the 3D-printed habitat on June 25, 2023, as the first crew of the space agency’s Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog project.

Haston, the mission commander, began with a simple “Hello.”

“It’s really wonderful to be able to say hello to you all,” she said.

Jones, a physician and medical officer for the mission, said their 378 days in confinement “went by quickly.”

The quartet lived and worked in a 17,000-square-foot space to simulate a mission to the Red Planet, the fourth from the sun and a frequent topic of discussion among scientists and science fiction fans regarding a possible voyage taking humans beyond our moon.

The first CHAPEA crew focused on creating possible conditions for future operations on Mars through simulated spacewalks, dubbed “Marswalks,” as well as growing and harvesting vegetables to supplement their provisions and maintain the habitat and equipment.

They also faced challenges that a real Mars crew would face, including limited resources, isolation and communication delays of up to 22 minutes with their home planet on the other side of the habitat walls, NASA said.

Two additional CHAPEA missions are planned, and crews will continue to conduct simulated spacewalks and collect data on factors related to physical and behavioral health and performance, NASA said.

Steve Koerner, deputy director of the Johnson Space Center, said most of the experiments conducted by the first crew focused on nutrition and how it affected their performance. The work was “critical science as we prepare to send people to the Red Planet,” he said.

“They were separated from their families, put on a carefully prescribed diet and subjected to extensive observation,” Koerner said.

“Mars is our goal,” he said, calling the project an important step in America’s intention to become a leader in the global space exploration effort.

As they exited the habitat after a knock on the door from astronaut and deputy director of flight operations Kjell Lindgren, the four volunteers spoke of the gratitude they felt for each other and for those waiting patiently outside, as well as the lessons they had learned about a possible manned mission to Mars and about life on Earth.

Brockwell, the crew’s flight engineer, said the mission showed him the importance of living sustainably for the benefit of everyone on Earth.

“I am very grateful to have had this incredible opportunity to live for a year in the spirit of a planetary adventure into an exciting future, and I am grateful to have had the chance to live the idea that we must use resources no faster than they can be replenished and produce waste no faster than it can be turned into resources,” Brockwell said.

“We cannot live, dream, create or explore for any significant period of time if we do not live these principles, but if we do, we can achieve and sustain amazing and inspiring things like exploring other worlds,” he said.

Chief scientist Anca Selariu said she had been asked several times why there was such a fixation on Mars.

“Why go to Mars? Because it can be done,” she said. “Because space can unify and bring out the best in us. Because it is a milestone that Earthlings will take to light the way for centuries to come.”