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STORY: This is where four people will live for about

a year as NASA prepares to send people to Mars

(Grace Douglas, NASA Advanced Food Technology Lead Scientist)

“So, the Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog, or CHAPEA, was developed as a one-year Mars surface simulation, with the intent that we can have crew in isolation and confinement with Mars-realistic restrictions, and we can really start to understand how those restrictions are associated with their health and performance over that year.”

The crew will have a limited amount of water to drink

and will need to grow their own leafy greens

and vegetables inside the 3D-printed habitat

Their mental health and social dynamics will also be evaluated

(Suzanne Bell, Lead at NASA’s Behavioral Health and Performance Laboratory)

“Besides the isolation, confinement and the sheer distance, would be things like being able to get along. So, when you're in a small habitat with, you know, three other people, that can wear on you over time. And we have different experiments and what we call analogs like this that have been for shorter durations. There's been a handful that have gone over a year.”

NASA plans to announce the four crew members this summer

The mission is slated for sometime in the 2030s