Peek inside NASA’s Mars habitat where humans train for life on the red planet

NASA has offered a sneak peek inside its Mars simulation habitat where four volunteers have now spent 150 days isolated from the outside world.

By living within the confines of the 1,700-square-foot Mars Dune Alpha habitat at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Ross Elder, Ellen Ellis, Matthew Montgomery, and James Spicer are helping NASA to better prepare for long-duration missions that will take humans into deep space.

This week, the space agency shared several photos of the volunteers, who entered the habitat on October 19 last year.

Montgomery and Elder are shown carrying out some scientific research, and also playing table-tennis with Ellis on what looks like a regular-looking dining table. The fourth member of the group, Montgomery, doesn’t appear in the images, but we’ll assume that he’s doing just fine (thinking about it, he probably took the photos!).

NASA is carefully analyzing how the volunteers respond physically and mentally to spending so much time in a confined environment.

During their time in the Mars habitat, they’ll also have to deal with challenges like shortfalls in resources, along with maintenance tasks and daily activities like tending to crops.

“Because the crew is replicating living on the surface of Mars some 250 million miles away, communications with Earth can be delayed by approximately 22 minutes each way and may be entirely blocked,” Elder said prior to entering the habitat. “Because of this, we may be unable to expect input from Mission Control back in Houston when time-critical emergencies arise. Therefore, it’s critical for the crew to rely on our teamwork, skills, decision making, and quick action to ensure the safety and success of the mission.”

The facility has around nine rooms, a shared bathroom, and an area for communal meals and socializing. Each member has their own private bedroom, too.

There’s also an adjacent area that’s been designed to simulate the Martian surface, where the volunteers can practice so-called “Mars walks.”

Elder, Ellis, Montgomery, and Spicer are scheduled to leave the habitat on October 31 this year, giving NASA plenty more time to understand what it takes to survive while millions of miles from Earth.

NASA wants to send the first humans to Mars some time in the 2030s, but it’s possible that the epic voyage might not happen until much later. For the time being, the closest anyone will get to the red planet is right here on Earth, inside carefully controlled simulations like the one at the Johnson Space Center.