Summary
Four volunteers completed NASA’s 378-day CHAPEA Mission 2 in a simulated Mars habitat at Johnson Space Center. Researchers will interpret health and performance data gathered during the mission to inform planning for future exploration.
Four research volunteers have completed NASA’s second yearlong Mars surface simulation, spending 378 days in the Mars Dune Alpha habitat at Johnson Space Center in Houston. The CHAPEA Mission 2 crew left the habitat on Oct. 31, 2026, after collecting health and performance data while carrying out simulated exploration tasks and managing limited resources.
CHAPEA—Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog—uses a ground-based habitat to simulate selected conditions of a long-duration planetary mission. The four-person crew entered the roughly 1,700-square-foot, 3D-printed facility on Oct. 19, 2025. During their stay, they had no windows, no sounds from outside and no real-time calls with family and friends.
Tasks inside Mars Dune Alpha
The crew took part in simulated Marswalks, robotic operations, habitat maintenance, exercise and crop cultivation. During simulated excursions, crew members remotely operated a drone and a rover to survey terrain and identify or collect rock samples. Preparing suits, completing airlock procedures and making long traverses took time and physical effort, according to commander Ross Elder.
The volunteers also had to manage supplies, including food and water, and track everyday consumables such as dish soap and respirator filters. NASA said they navigated communication delays of up to 22 minutes each way. These conditions brought together operational demands—such as planning activities without rapid replies from Earth—with the routines of living and working in a confined habitat.
Science officer Matthew Montgomery helped set up the habitat’s 3D-printing capabilities and worked on a seed-germination experiment using a control and simulated Martian soil. The crew also gathered biological samples as part of health research. These activities added research and maintenance work to the simulated exploration schedule.
How NASA plans to use the data
Researchers will spend two weeks on post-mission evaluations and debriefs, interpreting the data alongside the crew’s experiences. The work builds on CHAPEA’s first mission, which ended on July 6, 2024.
CHAPEA principal investigator Grace Douglas said the research will help NASA weigh risks to crew health and performance against resource demands, including crew time, communication capacity, and food and water system designs. That makes the mission relevant to planning how people might live and work during extended exploration, where supplies and communication opportunities are constrained.
NASA project scientist Sara Whiting said the data also comes as the agency plans how astronauts will live and work at a proposed lunar outpost near the Moon’s South Pole. The habitat simulation offers evidence about how a small crew handles selected constraints on Earth; it is an analog study, rather than experience of conditions on Mars itself.