AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Four volunteers are back from Mars - sort of. They spent the last year inside a NASA hangar, learning how humans could live on the red planet. That's 378 days in a simulation without leaving. Houston Public Media's Michael Adkison was there for their return.
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MICHAEL ADKISON, BYLINE: Opening a door and walking outside may be one small step for man, but this Mars simulation mission could be a crucial step, if not quite a giant leap for NASA's future.
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ADKISON: On Saturday, the four crew members of NASA's Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog, or CHAPEA, felt the sun on their skin and embraced family and friends for the first time since 2025. For 378 days, they had been living in a 1,700-square-foot 3D-printed facility inside a hangar at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Ross Elder was commander of the simulated mission.
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ROSS ELDER: The goal of putting humans on Mars is not only achievable but, rather, inevitable.
ADKISON: Elder and his crewmates, Ellen Ellis, James Spicer and Matthew Montgomery, went on simulated space walks, grew crops and studied geology, all within the space of roughly a three-bedroom house. As part of the mission, NASA even simulated communication delays that lasted up to 44 minutes, like there would be in reality, between Earth and Mars. At one point, they even went through a two-week-long communications blackout, which is what would happen if the sun were between Earth and Mars.
SUZANNE BELL: One of the important things is a sensory deprivation experience, never seeing anyone else besides those other three crew members you're with.
ADKISON: Suzanne Bell is one of the investigators overseeing the CHAPEA mission.
BELL: In their white space and downtime, we actually saw them do creative things like form a band and really learn how to pass the time so they can not only survive a mission like this, but also thrive in it.
ADKISON: The data NASA gains from CHAPEA will help the administration plan for future missions, not only to Mars but the Earth's moon as well. In fact, as NASA prepares to begin development of permanent lunar infrastructure as soon as this winter, the administration is tweaking the next CHAPEA missions to focus on both Mars and the moon as NASA sets its sight on the Artemis program and a planned moon base.
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ELDER: These miraculous achievements lay the foundation for long-duration deep-space exploration.
ADKISON: Summing up the surrealism of the mission, Commander Elder referenced not a sci-fi movie but a different one about simulating life - "The Truman Show."
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ELDER: Lastly, to the viewers online, in case I don't see you, good afternoon, good evening and good night.
ADKISON: NASA has said it hopes to send humans to the red planet as soon as the 2030s.
For NPR News in Houston, I'm Michael Adkison. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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