NASA is looking for volunteers willing to be trapped inside a simulated Martian environment that’s roughly the size of a two-bedroom apartment for a full year.
The space agency is now accepting applications for its second edition of CHAPEA (Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog), which is scheduled to take place in spring 2025. The deadline for applications is April 2.
A four-person crew will live and work inside a 3D-printed, 1,700-square-foot habitat that loosely resembles the conditions on Mars as part of NASA’s efforts to prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. The habitat, called the Mars Dune Alpha, is located at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. It has a kitchen, two bathrooms, private bedrooms, a work area, and a recreational area for socializing.
If you’re a healthy, motivated, non-smoking U.S. citizen or permanent resident between the ages of 30 and 55, then you might have what it takes. Participants also need to have a master’s degree in a STEM field and two years’ of professional STEM experience, or 1,000 hours piloting experience.
Before you apply, you should know that this is far from a year-long vacation. The four volunteers will carry out different tasks as though on a mission to Mars, including simulated spacewalks, robotic operations, habitat maintenance, personal hygiene, exercise, and crop growth. The crew will also have to deal with a Mars-realistic communication delay of up to 22 minutes with ground control.
CHAPEA is designed to monitor the crew’s performance throughout the year to help understand the physical and mental challenges that real astronauts may experience on Mars.
The first crew of volunteers entered the Mars habitat in June 2023 and have been sharing their experience through images showcasing everyday life on a Mars analog.
Nathan Jones, emergency medical physician, giving Anca Selariu, U.S. Navy microbiologist, a haircut inside the simulated Mars habitat.Photo: NASA/CHAPEA crew
With the goal of creating a long-term human presence on Mars, researchers must consider the potential impacts to physical and mental health and behavior. A recent study suggested that it may only take 22 people to maintain a colony on Mars, and that those Mars inhabitants should have agreeable personalities to ensure better survival on the Red Planet.
NASA wants to carry out three ground-based Mars analog missions in total. So if you’re not ready to get cozy with three strangers on another planet just yet, there’s always next time.
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