The first CHAPEA mission bunch member have been living and working inside NASA ’s first simulate Mars home ground for over a year . NASA
As many of us experience during lockdown , it ’s not easy to stay sane and fat in an enclosed environment . But four volunteers for a NASA experimentation have tested this to its limits by spending more than a yr confine to a model of a Mars outpost .
In NASA ’s Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog ( CHAPEA ) mission , four volunteershave spent 378 days in a simulated Mars environment designed to look and feel as much like Mars as is possible here on Earth . They lived in a3D - printed home ground , perform scientific discipline jobs , and could only communicate with the external world via ground control .
The first CHAPEA mission crew members have been living and working inside NASA’s first simulated Mars habitat for over a year.NASA
“ For more than a twelvemonth , the gang model Mars charge cognitive process , including ‘ Marswalks , ’ ” grew and reap several vegetables to add on their ledge - stable food , maintained their equipment and home ground , and operated under additional stressors a Mars crew will receive , including communication hold with Earth , resource limitation , and isolation , ” NASA excuse in astatement .
The mind was to test what some of the health implication were for crew extremity on long - duration foreign mission . With a limited diet and some high exercise demands — such as do simulated Marswalks using a salt mine where they had to walk for long periods — researchers desire to hold back the effects of these conditions on their forcible health . Plus , there was also the important emergence of group psychological science and genial health during such a long geological period of comparative isolation .
Now that this phase of the experimentation has come to an remainder , the crew is get ready to leave behind their home ground for the first time in a year . They will be exiting the assume Mars environment this Saturday , July 6 .
How to watch the crew members leave their habitat
If you ’re curious to see what it ’s like to leave an enclosed environment after more than a year , NASA will be live - stream the bunch member as they leave their habitat on Saturday , July 6 . The reportage will let in a ceremony to receive the crew back to “ world ” life history , plus discussions with NASA experts about the experimentation and its potential for future Mars commission . Panelists include Kjell Lindgren , a NASA spaceman and lieutenant director of flight operation , plus several scientists and engineers who worked on the delegacy .
Coverage begins at 5 post meridiem ET/2 p.m. PT on July 6 , and you could watch either on NASA ’s streaming table service NASA+ or via YouTube by heading to theYouTube pagefor the effect or by using the video recording embed above .
