NASA team isolates for year to mimic life on Mars

Four volunteers, two men and two women, have taken up residence in a mock base built by NASA to simulate living on the red planet.

The simulated Mars habitat, featuring a sandbox. Picture: NASA

The conditions are cramped, the chances of meeting new people are slim and communications with the wider world are agonisingly slow – but on the upside, you get to be part of humanity’s first attempt to settle on another planet.

Four volunteers, two men and two women, have taken up residence in a mock Mars base built in Texas by NASA. The plan calls for them to remain confined to the 158sq m facility for more than a year to simulate the privations that will come with living in another world.

The crew will be confronted with stressful situations to shed light on the mental stamina of ­future Mars explorers. Grace Douglas, principal investigator for the Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA) overseeing the experiment, said that it was a “critical step” towards sending a crewed mission to the red planet.

The crew, in black from left to right: Anca Selariu, science officer, Nathan Jones, medical officer, Ross Brockwell, flight engineer, and Kelly Haston, commander.

At present, the space agency has its sights set on the moon, with a landing tentatively planned within the next few years. The construction of a lunar base is being seen as a stepping stone to Mars. First, though, will come several CHAPEA missions on Earth.

The first involves a team of “analog astronauts” – a microbiologist, biologist, engineer and medical doctor – spending 378 days inside an abode known as Mars Dune Alpha.

The base at the Johnson Space Centre in Houston includes bedrooms, a gym, common areas and a vertical farm to grow food. It was built using a 3D printer, which squeezed out layers of a clay-type polymer substance called lavacrete.

The base includes bedrooms, a gym, common areas and a vertical farm to grow food. Picture: NASA/Bill Stafford

NASA is exploring whether a similar technique could be used on Mars.

The idea would be to use Martian soil and dust as ingredients in a construction material, to limit the resources that would have to be brought from Earth. The volunteers’ communications with the outside world will be subject to a 20-minute delay, as would happen for messages between Earth and Mars.

To be considered for selection, much like NASA astronauts, they had to have a degree in a science, technology, engineering or maths discipline, as well as professional experience in their respective fields or military training. They also had to pass the same physical and psychological tests.

Douglas said: “The simulation will allow us to collect physical and cognitive performance data to give us more information about the potential impacts of long-duration Mars missions on crew health and performance.”

The Times