Life on Mars? Four volunteers are spending a YEAR living in a fake ‘Red Planet’ in Houston
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While Mars and Earth are similar in many ways, life on the Red Planet would be far from easy.
Dust devils, dangerous radiation and harsh temperatures are among the many challenges – and that excludes the complete lack of oxygen.
But now four volunteers will battle this one out for themselves, having entered a Texas-based Mars simulation where they’ll spend the next year.
NASA yesterday launched its “CHAPEA” (Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog) project in a major step towards Mars.
A four-person crew will now spend 378 days in a 1,700-square-foot home dubbed the “Mars Dune Alpha,” equipped with four rooms, a gym, and even leather sofas — but windowless.
The exterior of the CHAPEA house – covered in red sand to simulate conditions on Mars
Here, the group of volunteers will perform a range of ‘mission activities’ such as robotic operations, growing crops and maintaining hygiene amidst ‘alien’ obstacles.
“They are about to embark on an analogous mission that includes Operation Logistics and research into living and working on Mars. The importance of this study cannot be underestimated,” said Judy Hayes, Chief Science Officer of CHAPEA.
“As the journey unfolds over the next year, NASA scientists will learn critical insights about the physical and behavioral aspects of a mission to Mars through the stealth of this stellar crew.”
Microbiologist Anca Selariu, research scientist Kelly Haston, engineer Ross Brockwell and doctor Nathan Jones are among the crew of four in the CHAPEA habitat.
Their new home houses four small rooms, two bathrooms, and lots of red sand, as the U.S. space agency has attempted to replicate conditions on Mars.
While you might not expect life on Mars to be luxurious, their living space is also complete with a living area, TVs, and several workstations.
It even has an airlock that leads to an “outside” reconstruction of the Martian environment, though it’s still in the hangar that houses the facility.
There are also various devices scattered over the sandy bottom, including a weather station, a stone machine and a small greenhouse.
The house is also equipped with a treadmill, on which the volunteer astronauts will walk, suspended by belts to simulate the lesser gravity of Mars.
Microbiologist Anca Selariu (pictured left), research scientist Kelly Haston (center right), engineer Ross Brockwell (center left), and doctor Nathan Jones (far right) are among the crew of four in the CHAPEA habitat
The Mars Dune Alpha features a recreation area complete with leather couches and a TV
The Mars-like exterior of the Texas house where the crew will conduct various tests
One of the working areas within NASA’s Mars Dune Alpha base in Houston, Texas
As the mission progresses, NASA plans to monitor the crew’s physical and mental health to better understand people’s ability to endure such long isolation.
Researchers regularly test the crew’s response to stressful situations, such as limited water availability or malfunctioning equipment.
NASA’s principal investigator on the project, Grace Douglas, said this data would allow the agency to better understand astronauts’ “resource use” on Mars.
“We can really start to understand how we’re supporting them with what we’re providing them, and that’s going to be really important information in making those critical resource decisions,” she said during a previous press tour of the habitat.
Nathan Jones, one of the crew members, also added on Sunday, “Humanity longs to reach higher than ever before. Metaphorically and physically, we try to climb the highest mountains.
Suzanne Bell, associate professor of industrial and organizational psychology, and Grace Douglas, senior scientist in advanced food technology, speak to members of the media during a previous media tour of the Mars Dune Alpha
The base is equipped with a gym and various pieces of equipment that can be used for exercise
There is a treadmill that the volunteer astronauts will walk on, suspended by belts to simulate the lesser gravity of Mars
The living/dining room in CHAPEA’s Mars Dune Alpha where the team will spend a year
The oxygen generator system in the Mars Duna Alpha, which simulates real-world conditions
The habitat was created for three planned experiments, the Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA). The photo shows a floor plan of the facility
“So we’ve set our sights on a distant tomorrow, when we might be on mountains like Olympus Mons, the tallest mountain in our solar system — as far as I know.” That’s a mountain on Mars.
“But I believe tomorrow is only possible because today we step into Mars Dune Alpha.”
Another interesting feature of the habitat, which the team has been working on since 2019, is that it is 3D printed.
This comes at a time when NASA is exploring possible ways to be self-reliant and build habitats on other planetary surfaces.
While NASA is currently in the early stages of preparation for a mission to Mars, its primary focus is on the upcoming Artemis missions.
These aim to return humans to the moon for the first time in half a century, and will begin in 2024 with Artemis II flying around our lunar satellite.
The first woman and first person of color will walk on the lunar surface for Artemis III a year later.
NASA plans to send a manned mission to Mars in the 2030s after first landing on the moon
Mars has become the next great leap forward for humankind’s space exploration.
But before humans reach the red planet, astronauts will take a series of small steps by returning to the moon for a year-long mission.
Details of a lunar orbiting mission have been revealed as part of a timeline of events leading up to missions to Mars in the 2030s.
NASA has outlined its four-phase plan (pictured) that it hopes will one day allow humans to visit Mars at the Humans to Mars Summit held yesterday in Washington DC. This will entail multiple missions to the moon in the coming decades
In May 2017, Greg Williams, deputy assistant administrator for policy and plans at NASA, outlined the space agency’s four-phase plan that it hopes will one day allow humans to visit Mars, as well as the expected time frame.
Phase one and two will include multiple trips to lunar space, to allow for the construction of a habitat that will provide a staging point for the journey.
The last piece of hardware delivered would be the actual Deep Space Transport vehicle that would later be used to transport a crew to Mars.
And in 2027, a simulation of life on Mars will be conducted for a year.
Phases three and four will begin after 2030 and will include continued crew expeditions to the Mars system and the Martian surface.