CHAPEA Crew Begins Stay in NASA’s Mars Habitat for Second Mission
On October 19, 2025, the CHAPEA crew began their stay inside NASA’s Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA) habitat, marking the start of the agency’s second 378-day simulated Mars mission. Four research volunteers—Ross Elder, Ellen Ellis, Matthew Montgomery, and James Spicer—entered the 1,700-square-foot, 3D-printed habitat located at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. They will live and work inside this simulated Martian environment until October 31, 2026.
The CHAPEA crew begins stay with the goal of replicating the conditions of a real Mars mission. Their activities will include living in isolation, performing simulated Marswalks outside the habitat while wearing spacesuits, and navigating a landscape filled with red sand. These Marswalks will take place in a controlled environment directly outside the habitat, within the building that houses CHAPEA at Johnson Space Center. The crew will only leave the habitat for these specific tasks, maintaining the isolation necessary for the simulation.
CHAPEA Crew Begins Stay: Mission Objectives and Challenges
The mission’s purpose is to gather critical data that will help NASA prepare for actual human missions to Mars. Sara Whiting, Human Research Program project scientist, explained that the lessons learned from CHAPEA will influence real mission planning, vehicle and habitat designs, and other resources needed to support crew health and performance beyond low-Earth orbit. The Human Research Program aims to reduce the risks to human health and performance during spaceflight, enabling safe and successful crewed missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
Grace Douglas, CHAPEA principal investigator, emphasized that the crew’s work will provide foundational data for mission planning and vehicle design. The information will help NASA make informed decisions about resources, methods, and technologies that best support astronaut health and performance within the constraints of living on Mars. This data is essential for achieving NASA’s goal of sending astronauts to explore the Red Planet.
Simulating Life and Work on Mars
Throughout the 378-day mission, the CHAPEA crew will engage in a variety of activities designed to mimic life on Mars. These include high-tempo simulated Marswalks, robotic operations, habitat maintenance, physical exercise, and crop cultivation. The mission also aims to study how the crew adapts to environmental stressors that could occur during a real Mars mission. These stressors include limited access to resources, prolonged isolation, communication delays of 22 minutes, and potential equipment failures.
Researchers will closely observe how the team manages these challenges. The insights gained will inform future protocols and mission plans to ensure astronaut safety and mission success during long-duration space exploration. The first CHAPEA mission, conducted in the same habitat, concluded on July 6, 2024, providing valuable experience that supports this second mission.
NASA’s Human Research Program continues to pursue methods and technologies that support safe and productive human space travel. By conducting research in laboratories, ground-based analogs like CHAPEA, commercial missions, the International Space Station, and Artemis missions, the program studies how spaceflight affects human bodies and behaviors. This research drives innovation to keep astronauts healthy and mission-ready as human exploration extends to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
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Source: original article.