Upcoming NASA mission will simulate life on MarsJordan Perkins
NewsNationSat, August 23, 2025 at 2:06 PM EDT
2 min read
Upcoming NASA mission will simulate life on Mars(NewsNation) — NASA will soon be taking a giant leap towards Mars with a new mission, but it doesn’t involve a launch for the crew.
Instead of taking the journey to Mars, four volunteers will be living and working in an airplane hangar that simulates life on the Red Planet, called the Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog Habitat (CHAPEA).
CHAPEA will be complete with a 3D printed habitat that resembles Mars’ surface so the volunteers can do “marswalks.”
This upcoming mission will be NASA’s second CHAPEA mission after the first that took place in June of 2023, where four separate volunteers came back in July of 2024. The volunteers will spend a year in the simulated habitat in preparation for an actual Mars mission where everything from food growth, emergency response and psychological impact will be studied.
Unlike actually being on Mars, the volunteers have to stay for the full year and cannot be brought back. Terry Virts, a former NASA astronaut, said this mission is important because it will help to work out all the technical details in making sure the space agency is prepared to send its astronauts to Mars.
“I think it’s the human, psychological aspects of that mission that are going to be the toughest ones,” Virts said. “Here, we can get a feel for what will keep them motivated and mentally healthy.”
Virts joined “Morning in America” to offer advice to the volunteers who are about to embark on the yearlong “Mars journey.”
“It’s going to last a long time, but it will end,” Virts said. “Always expect the unexpected, and don’t require that everything goes your way or perfectly all the time. If something isn’t working, that’s okay, you just have to be flexible.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/upcoming-nasa-mission-simulate-life-180624636.html
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