NASA shows off Mars-like habitat, ahead of second year-long mission to explore Red Planet
NASA is preparing for its second year-long Mars-simulated mission in a 3D-printed habitat in Houston, Texas. The space agency gave media a tour of the Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog, or CHAPEA, at the Johnson Space Center on Aug. 22, 2025. In October, a crew of four people will spend a year inside the 1,700-square-foot habitat, isolated from loved ones and participating in the exercises, job duties and daily life expected of a future crew exploring Mars – a goal NASA has set for the 2030s. In September, NASA plans to announce the new CHAPEA crew, which will comprise of people with “astronaut-like” backgrounds and qualities.
REUTERS VIDEO
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00:00We successfully completed Chappia Mission 1, where we had a crew in isolation and confinement for 378 days.
00:07They left the habitat last year. We're getting ready for Chappia Mission 2, which will begin on October 19th.
00:14We've carefully chosen a crew to be very astronaut-like, both in terms of their backgrounds,
00:19but also in terms of their personalities and ability to work as a team.
00:23This is a really important operational evaluation of human health and performance that NASA is doing.
00:30In preparation to land the first humans on Mars, in Chappia, we mimic what is the Mars Surface Habitat expected resource restrictions.
00:39So limited communication with Earth.
00:46The crew will have to deal with whatever comes their way.
00:50They'll have to problem solve when they're subjected to these conditions,
00:53and they'll have to do that with mission control on really just an extended remote support role because they won't get information back for about 44 minutes later.
01:03So that crew will have to use incredible teamwork.
01:06I can expect that crews would perform anything from geological surveys and runs.
01:17So think about exploring their environment in depth in terms of exploring a lava tube or trying to go out and fully understand the composition of the Martian soil that's around there.
01:30So doing things like excavation based activities or even doing soil sampling based runs.
01:39And so one of the big important factors of understanding what the soil and geological composition is of the Martian regolith
01:48is to really help with doing some in-situ resource utilization or using your localized resources to help build out a 3D-printed habitat.
02:01This area here is to analyze samples that they will collect on their Mars spacewalks that they can bring back in and understand and provide data back on comm delay to mission control
02:12to better inform our understanding of the Martian surface.
02:15...is designed to do.
02:17It's a comprehensive, integrated...
02:20So we know already that aerobic exercise or cardiovascular activity is extremely important,
02:27as well as resistance training, specifically for the fact that they're not going to be on Earth gravity.
02:33So when they don't have that gravity, it affects a lot of musculoskeletal systems,
02:39so bone, muscle, and we want them to be as healthy as possible.
02:44...would be considered major emergencies, but then ultimately...
02:48Our crop growth experts look at what different possible foods that could be grown are,
02:54and examples of that would be leafy greens and tomatoes, whereas they're still working on other possibilities.
03:02...and the 370-day duration, what are we using it?
03:05So Chapia was actually 3D-printed with a concrete solution,
03:11but the technology was mimicking how we might make a habitat on Mars from the Mars regolith, or soil.
03:18Why that's important is you're always restricted on what you can send to Mars.
03:22We don't have endless ability to supply, and so the more you can use things that are already in the Martian surface,
03:28or that you can recycle over time,
03:30are a great opportunity to save that payload for other things that you would like to send.
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