The crew of NASA’s Mars mission has stepped out of its craft after a year-long journey that never leaves Earth.
The four volunteer crew members spent more than 12 months in NASA’s first simulated Mars environment at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, exiting the artificial extraterrestrial environment on Saturday around 5 p.m.
Kelly Haston, Anka Selariu, Ross Brockwell and Nathan Jones entered the 3D printed habitat on June 25, 2023 as the space agency’s first crew An analog study of crew health and productivity project.
Haston, the mission commander, began with a simple “Hello.”
“It’s actually so wonderful to be able to say hi to all of you,” she said.
Jones, a doctor and mission medical officer, said their 378 days in prison “went by quickly.”
The quartet lived and worked in the 17,000-square-foot (1,579-square-meter) space to simulate a mission to the red planet, the fourth from the sun and a frequent focus of discussion among scientists and science fiction fans about possible human travel beyond our moon.
The first CHAPEA crew focused on establishing possible conditions for future Mars operations through simulated spacewalks called “Marswalks”, as well as growing and harvesting vegetables to supplement their provisions and maintaining the habitat and their equipment.
They also dealt with challenges that a real Mars crew would have to experience, including limited resources, isolation and communication delays of up to 22 minutes with their home planet on the other side of the habitat’s walls, NASA said.
Two additional CHAPEA missions are planned, and the crews will continue to conduct simulated spacewalks and collect data on factors related to physical and behavioral health and performance, NASA said.
Steve Koerner, Johnson Space Center deputy director, said most of the first crew’s experiments focused on nutrition and how it affected their performance. The work is “key science as we prepare to send humans to the red planet,” he said.
“They were separated from their families, put on a carefully prescribed meal plan and put under a lot of observation,” Koerner said.
“Mars is our goal,” he said, calling the project an important step in America’s intention to be a leader in global space exploration efforts.
Appearing after a knock on the door of the habitat by Kell Lindgren, astronaut and deputy director of flight operations, the four volunteers spoke of the gratitude they feel for each other and for those who waited patiently outside, as well as the lessons learned from the future pilot ship mission to Mars and life on Earth.
Brockwell, the crew’s flight engineer, said the mission showed him how important it is to live sustainably for the benefit of everyone on Earth.
“I am very grateful to have had this incredible opportunity to live a year in the spirit of a planetary adventure towards an exciting future and I am grateful for the chance to experience the idea that we must use resources no faster than they are replenished and produce waste no faster than they can be processed back into resources,” Brockwell said.
“We can’t live, dream, create or explore for any significant length of time if we don’t live by these principles, but if we do, we can achieve and sustain amazing and inspiring things like exploring other worlds,” he said.
Science officer Anka Selariu said she has been asked many times why there is a fix on Mars.
“Why go to Mars? Because it is possible,” she said. “Because space can unite and bring out the best in us. Because this is a defining step that Earthlings will take to light the way to the next centuries.”
