One more step towards Mars? NASA takes a new step in its preparation for future missions inhabited to the red planet. The American space agency has presented the names of the four volunteers who will participate, as of October 19, in a one -year simulation in a closed 158 m² habitat at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Three men and a woman, Ross Elder, Ellen Ellis, Matthew Montgomery and James Spicer, will live as real astronauts in the capsule called “March Dune Alpha “ Until October 31, 2026.
Anticipate restrictions
This project is part of Chapea missions (for Analog of health exploration and crew performance), carried out in a 3D printed habitat. Why use this technology? Simply for more realism. Future Martian settlers will not be able to bring many construction materials. The cost of a “house” of the earth would be prohibitive. Therefore, they will have to deal with what will be available on the site. In this context, 3D printing reduces costs and offers greater adaptability. Therefore, the habitat will be built in “Lavacrete”, a suitcase word that comes from the English “lava” and the “concrete”, the volcanic rock and the concrete. This material provides very good weather resistance, excellent thermal insulation and is also very impressive. So perfect in an environment rich in limitations.
The objective of this simulation is to test the living and work conditions in a Martian environment and better anticipate the limitations that future crews will suffer. Volunteers will have to deal with limited resources, technical breakdowns, communication delays, isolation and simulated missing activities, thanks to virtual reality. But, the simulation will be so concrete. Therefore, astronauts will have to deal with planting and harvesting part of their food, which they will then prepare. As they should do on the red planet, without regular delivery of food rations.
Precious data collection
“”Simulation will allow us to collect data on cognitive and physical performance to better understand the effects of long -term missions on health and crew “, Explained Grace Douglas, principal investigator of the program. This life size experience should help NASA to better evaluate the risks and define the necessary interventions to make possible a human exploration of Mars. Hence the importance of food missions, in particular, which will also have to measure the impact on the physique and health of astronauts.
Mars, a political objective?
For more than half a century, the dream of sending humans to Mars regularly has returned to the agendas of the main space agencies. Already in the 1960s, following the Apollo program, NASA had studied the possibility of a inhabited Martian mission for the 1980s, before giving up colossal costs and technological uncertainties. But since the re -election of Donald Trump in the White House, on January 20, 2025, the American space program has resorted to the red planet again.
The US president has turned Martian exploration into one of his emblematic projects. Its objective is clear: see the American flag planted in March in 2029. In parallel, Elon Musk, patron of Spacex, shows the ambition to launch a mission inhabited in 2028. But this daring space policy faces many obstacles, both technical and financial. To this is added a delicate political factor: tensions between Donald Trump and Elon Musk. This “divorce” between the White House and the Chief of Spacex could weaken a project already marked by uncertainty and excess.
Source: BFM TV
