Ever since humans set foot on the moon, the idea of expanding the reach of human habitat has been in the realm of all astronomers. While many have been searching intensely to find the next planet Earth, some believe we already have a competitor nearby.
Unmanned missions to Mars have been close to practical for the eventual landing of a human spacecraft on the red planet. While the people on Mars are still fodder for sci-fi movies, NASA is taking a big step toward the mission.
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- 4 volunteers have entered NASA’s Mars simulation
- The experiment has a bee installed at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
4 volunteers have entered NASA’s Mars simulation
On Sunday, four volunteers entered a simulation that poses a virtual habitat that mimics that of the planet Mars. They are expected to stay inside the simulation for 378 days while facing a variety of challenges designed to anticipate a real human mission to Mars.
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Four volunteers, research scientist Kelly Haston, structural engineer Ross Brockwell, emergency medicine physician Nathan Jones, and US Navy microbiologist Anca Selariu, were selected from the Health and Performance Exploration Analogue. NASA crew (CHAPEA) for its first one-year mission.
None of the four volunteers are astronauts.
Before going into the simulation, the four volunteers met with Grace Douglas, the mission’s principal investigator at NASA, for a briefing. Douglas thanked the quads for their dedication to exploring and wished them well.
Haston, who was appointed by NASA as commander of the simulated mission to Mars, spoke about the importance of spaceflight and exploration, which she said “exemplifies some of the best qualities of humanity.”
Hastons also praised his crew members on the virtual voyage, calling them an “incredible group of dedicated people who are very passionate about science and space exploration.”
CHAPEA’s 4-person team has just entered their home for the coming year. They are simulating a mission to Mars to help assess health and performance relative to the resource constraints of Mars in isolation and confinement. The gate is officially closed and the mission has begun. Go Crew 1! pic.twitter.com/KKWKQ1opwg
— NASA Johnson Space Center (@NASA_Johnson) June 25, 2023
The experiment has a bee installed at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
The four volunteers will spend more than a year inside a simulation built at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. They will only be allowed out after one year and 13 days.
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Inside the 3D-printed 1,700-square-foot habitat, the crew was instructed to carry out “mission activities” including spacewalks, robotic operations, cultivation, habitat maintenance, personal hygiene, and exercise.
The habitat is small but consists of a galley, private crew quarters, and two bathrooms, along with medical, work, and recreation areas. The crew will also face bugs and obstacles designed to reflect a real mission to Mars. They will have to overcome periods such as resource constraints, equipment failure, communication delays, and environmental stressors.
NASA has designed such an experiment in the hope that it will help them “collect physical and cognitive performance data to give us more information about the potential impacts of long-duration missions to Mars.”
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Source: vtt.edu.vn