The Mars habitat at Johnson Space Center is called Mars Dune Alpha and measures 158 square metres. (Photo: NASA/Disclosure)

NASA has taken another step towards its goal of flying humans to Mars and proving that it is possible to live on the Red Planet. Four volunteers have already entered a terrestrial habitat simulating conditions on Mars at Johnson Space Center, NASA’s manned flight, training and research command center in Houston, Texas (USA). They will stay in place for 378 days. This is the first of three simulations lasting about a year that NASA plans to run in its Chapea program, which is an English term for analog exploration of crew health and performance. The other two missions will be in 2025 and 2026.

The agency plans a manned mission to Mars in the 2030s. Therefore, it is preparing researchers to deal with the potential challenges of such a journey, including resource constraints, equipment failures, communications delays, and other environmental stresses — all of which have been simulated in these experiments conducted in terrestrial habitats. . A similar, but shorter, experiment was conducted earlier this month, when nine Spanish astronauts on the Hypatia mission spent 12 days in a desert in Utah, also in the US, experiencing inhospitable conditions similar to those on the Red Planet, such as Low humidity and extreme temperatures.

Mars in Texas

The Mars habitat at Johnson Space Center is called Mars Dune Alpha and measures 158 square metres. The place includes a kitchen, common areas, work stations, and two bathrooms, as well as an outdoor area with murals and red sand that mimic the environmental conditions of the Red Planet. The space agency said that in addition to living inside the space base simulator, the researchers will also simulate a spacewalk in the external environment and will have the help of virtual reality systems for this.

performance

The goal of the experiment is to collect data on the researchers’ physical and cognitive performance to understand the potential effects of a long-duration mission to Mars on the health and performance of the crew. Therefore, the specialists selected to participate in the simulation were two men and two women. They are Kelly Haston, a leader and scientist who specializes in human diseases; Ross Brockwell, aeronautical engineer; Nathan Jones, MD; Anka Celario, Biomedicine.

“The knowledge we will gain here will help us send humans to Mars and bring them home safely,” said Grace Douglas, principal investigator for the Chapaia program, in a speech during the event that saw researchers enter Mars’ Dione Alpha.