NASA experiment: Mars simulation ended after one year

NASA experiment Mars simulation ended after one year As of: November 1st, 2026 • 8:42 p.m

Four people spent a year together in 160 square meters in the USA - for science. Now the NASA experiment is over. The aim of the long period of isolation was to simulate life on Mars.

After twelve months, four volunteers have left a Mars simulation facility run by the US space agency NASA. To applause and cheers, the three men and one woman left the test site in Houston, Texas, ending the second mission of the “CHAPEA” program, as live images from the US space agency NASA showed.

Ross Elder, Matthew Montgomery, James Spicer and Ellen Ellis spent the past year on NASA's windowless simulation site "Mars Dune Alpha," which was created using a 3D printer. They were not allowed to leave during this time and had to, among other things, grow plants, take care of the maintenance of the living area and machines and do sports.

The mission was the second dress rehearsal of a technology that will enable flights to the moon and Mars. more

Everything was modeled on the idea of ​​life on Mars. "We are honored and proud to have been able to contribute to the colossal undertaking that will end and begin sending the first humans to Mars," Elder said at a press conference after the mission ended.

"We're very excited to get outside and experience sunshine - or, depending on the weather forecast, a heavy shower - for the first time in more than a year," joked his colleague Spicer. Ellis revealed that she's most looking forward to hugging her husband.

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The sleeping cells on the simulation site are around two by three meters in size, and there is also a kind of living room with a television and armchairs, work tables with computers and a sick bay. In a small outdoor area, the four residents simulated Mars external missions.

They were also partly responsible for their own medical care. So they had to take their own blood regularly, as Ellis said in a NASA podcast shortly before the end of the mission.

Her colleague Spicer said he was surprised by the amount of reports and protocols they had to fill out. "So it turns out that a lot of typing will be a key skill for future Mars astronauts," he joked.

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The four volunteers were allowed to communicate with family and friends, but only in “Mars time” - meaning that even sending a short text message took around 22 minutes. He received around 4,000 emails from family members and friends, which was a lifeline for him, Spicer said after completing the experiment.

The participants were not trained NASA astronauts. Anyone between the ages of 30 and 55 who is “healthy and motivated,” does not smoke, has U.S. citizenship or permanent residency, a science degree and at least 1,000 flight hours was eligible to apply.

Four other volunteers had already spent around a year in isolation on the site between 2023 and 2024. The next mission is planned for 2027. The "CHAPEA" program (Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analogue) is intended to help NASA one day put people on the moon again - and later on Mars.

"CHAPEA" is not the first experiment of this kind. NASA has already collected experience and data in a simulation area in Hawaii with the "Hi Seas" missions. The space agencies of Europe, Russia and China tried the same thing almost 15 years ago with the “Mars 500” project.

And something like this already happened on German soil. It was only in August that the European Space Agency (ESA) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Cologne completed the “Solis100” study, for which three men and women between the ages of 26 and 32 spent 100 days in isolation.

This topic in the program: tagesschau24 | News | 11/01/2026 | 7:00 p.m