Time is relative and it certainly passes much slower on Mars than on Earth. At least that must have been the case for the four astronauts who were part of the CHAPEA mission (Crew Health and Performance Exploration Simulation) whose objective was to simulate life on Mars and which concluded just a few hours ago. his experiment after 378 days isolated from the outside world.
The four volunteers, Anca Selariu, Ross Brockwell, Nathan Jones and team leader Kelly Haston, They left the Mars Dune Alpha basebuilt by NASA, where they had lived throughout the experiment.
The 160-square-meter structure at the Johnson Space Center in Houston was designed to mimic conditions on the Red Planet. The habitat is a 3D printed facility, with bedrooms, a gym, common areas and a vertical farm to grow food.
The structure also has an open-air area, separated by an airlock, in order to simulate the difficulties that astronauts will have to face on Martian soil. The area is filled with red sand, to simulate the terrain, and Each “walk” the astronauts took required them to put on their suits, life support and breathing system, as if they were really on the red planet.
The four volunteers have spent the past year growing vegetables, conducting spacewalks and operating under what NASA calls “additional stressors.” These included delays in communication with “Earth” (including their families), isolation and confinementThe team also conducted scientific research based primarily on nutrition, and determining its effects on their performance.
“We can do these things together,” Brockwell said in a statement. “We can use our senses of wonder and purpose to achieve peace and prosperity and unlock knowledge and joy.” for the benefit of everyone in every part of planet Earth”.
The mission was the first in the CHAPEA series and has served, according to Julie Kramer, NASA’s chief engineer, to “give us the opportunity to learn all these critical things about these complex systems, and it will make going to and coming back from Mars much safer.” Additional CHAPEA missions will take place next year and in 2027, in 2025 and 2027. All of them will be carried out, for now, at the same base.