The newest group of researchers will enter a 3D-printed Mars simulator next month to undertake a series of tasks designed to help NASA test living conditions on Mars.
From left: Sergii Yakimov, Erin Anderson, Brandon Kent, and Sarah Elizabeth McCandless (C7M3 crew/NASA)
by
Danny Gutman July 23, 2024 11:05
NASA’s newest group of researchers is set to step inside a Mars simulator next month, as humanity moves closer to sending humans to the Red Planet.
The newly selected group will join the Human Exploration Research Analogue (HERA) simulation mission on August 9, staying on the replica planet for 45 days.
The group, the third to complete the HERA mission this year at Johnson Space Center in Houston, will complete a series of routine tasks and chores that will help NASA test and determine the feasibility of life on Mars.
The group of researchers, Erin Anderson, Sergiy Yakimov, Brandon Kent and Sarah Elizabeth McCandless, who volunteered to spend 45 days in the 650-square-foot habitat, will “perform a variety of science and operational tasks, including harvesting plants from a hydroponic garden, farming shrimp, deploying small cubesats to simulate collecting virtual data for analysis, ‘walking’ the Martian surface using virtual reality goggles and flying a mock drone over the simulated Martian surface,” NASA said.
The simulation was recently used as part of the year-long CHAPEA mission (AFP /AFP via Getty Images)
NASA is trying to recreate what it will be like for astronauts flying to the planet in the future, with crew members having to deal with delays of up to 20 minutes to communicate with the outside world.
Additionally, NASA hopes that positive results will come from studies on the mental and physical wellbeing of crew members, as well as improved capabilities to test “certain procedures and equipment” while on the mock planet.
A similar mission running in parallel with HERA is the Crew Health and Performance Study Analog (CHAPEA), in which researchers spent more than a year inside the simulator before being released on July 6.
“Space can bring us together and bring out the best in us,” said Anka Serariu, a crew member who completed the year-long CHAPEA mission last month.
She added: “Because it is a decisive step that Earthlings are taking to light the way for the next century.”
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