NASA's 1st year-long mock Mars mission wraps up in Houston

Kelly Haston, commander of the CHAPEA-1 simulated Mars mission, speaks just after she and her three crewmates (also pictured) exited the Mars Dune Alpha habitat at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, bringing the 378-day analog effort to a close.

(Image credit: NASA TV)

NASA's first year-long mock Mars mission has come to an end.

That mission, the first in the CHAPEA ("Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog") series, began on June 25, 2023, when four volunteers were sealed inside a simulated Mars habitat at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston.

"For more than a year, the crew simulated Mars mission operations, including 'Marswalks,' grew and harvested several vegetables to supplement their shelf-stable food, maintained their equipment and habitat and operated under additional stressors a Mars crew will experience, including communication delays with Earth, resource limitations and isolation," NASA officials wrote in a CHAPEA-1 mission description.

Michael was a science writer for the Idaho National Laboratory and has been an intern at Wired.com, The Salinas Californian newspaper, and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. He has also worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz.