CHAPEA Crew Begins Stay Inside NASA’s Mars Habitat for Second Mission
NASA has officially commenced its second CHAPEA (Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog) mission, with a crew of four research volunteers stepping into a meticulously designed habitat to simulate life on Mars. On October 19, 2025, Ross Elder, Ellen Ellis, Matthew Montgomery, and James Spicer entered the 1,700-square-foot, 3D-printed habitat at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, embarking on a 378-day mission that will last until October 31, 2026. This mission is crucial for gathering insights into the challenges astronauts will face during long-duration space travel, particularly on Mars, as NASA prepares for future crewed explorations beyond low-Earth orbit.
During their time inside the habitat, the crew will engage in a variety of activities that replicate the conditions of a real Martian mission. These tasks include simulated “Marswalks” outside the habitat, where they will don spacesuits and navigate a red sand environment, as well as habitat maintenance, robotic operations, and crop cultivation. The mission is designed to expose the crew to various environmental stressors, such as limited resources, prolonged isolation, 22-minute communication delays, and potential equipment failures. Researchers will closely monitor how the crew adapts to these challenges, collecting vital data that will inform NASA’s mission planning and the design of vehicles and habitats for future Mars missions. “The information gained from these simulated missions is critical to NASA’s goal of sending astronauts to explore Mars,” stated Grace Douglas, the CHAPEA principal investigator.
The insights from the CHAPEA missions are part of NASA’s broader Human Research Program, which aims to ensure the health and performance of astronauts during extended space missions. By studying the physical and psychological impacts of space travel, NASA is working to mitigate risks and enhance the safety of future missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. The first CHAPEA mission concluded successfully in July 2024, and the ongoing research is expected to significantly contribute to the agency’s preparations for human exploration of Mars, reinforcing the importance of analog missions in understanding and overcoming the complexities of space travel.
CHAPEA mission 2 crew members (from left) Ross Elder, Ellen Ellis, Matthew Montgomery, and James Spicer pose in front of the door to the simulated Martian landscape for their first photo inside the CHAPEA habitat after their mission began in October 2025.
Credits: NASA/CHAPEA Crew
A crew of four research volunteers stepped inside NASA’s CHAPEA (Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog) habitat on Oct. 19, marking the start of the agency’s second 378-day simulated Mars mission.
Ross Elder, Ellen Ellis, Matthew Montgomery, and James Spicer are living and working inside the roughly 1,700-square-foot 3D-printed habitat at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston until Oct. 31, 2026.
“The information and lessons learned through CHAPEA will inform real-life mission planning, vehicle and surface habitat designs, and other resources NASA needs to support crew health and performance as we venture beyond low-Earth orbit,” said Sara Whiting, Human Research Program project scientist. “Through these lessons, NASA’s Human Research Program is reducing human health and performance risks of spaceflight to enable safe and successful crewed missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.”
The crew will face the challenges of a real Mars mission, and only leave to perform simulated “Marswalk” activities directly outside the habitat, wearing spacesuits, to traverse a simulated Mars environment filled with red sand. During these Marswalks, they will remain isolated within the building that houses CHAPEA at NASA Johnson.
“These crewmembers will help provide foundational data for mission planning and vehicle design and inform trades between resources, methods, and technologies that best support health and performance within the constraints of living on Mars,” said Grace Douglas, CHAPEA principal investigator. “The information gained from these simulated missions is critical to NASA’s goal of sending astronauts to explore Mars.”
During the year ahead, the crew will complete a variety of activities designed to replicate life and work on a long-duration mission on Mars, including high-tempo simulated Marswalks, robotic operations, habitat maintenance, physical exercise, and crop cultivation. The mission also aims to investigate how the crew adapts and responds to various environmental stressors that may arise during a real Martian mission, including limited access to resources, prolonged isolation, 22-minute communication delays, and equipment failures. Researchers will study how the team manages these conditions, which will inform future protocols and plans ahead of future crewed missions to Mars.
The
first CHAPEA mission
, which took place in the same habitat, concluded on July 6, 2024.
The CHAPEA mission 2 main crew and two alternate crew members are pictured in front of the Space Exploration Vehicle, the prototype pressurized rover that transported crew members to the habitat at the start of the mission.
Credits: NASA/James Blair
Ross Elder, CHAPEA mission 2 commander, waves to agency leaders and staff who are supporting the mission before he steps into the habitat.
Credits: NASA/James Blair
Suzanne Bell, CHAPEA Mission 2 Co-Principal Investigator, offers remarks to crew members Matthew Montgomery, James Spicer, Ross Elder, and Ellen Ellis directly before they enter the habitat for the 378-day mission.
Credits: NASA/James Blair
____
NASA’s Human Research Program
NASA’s
Human Research Program
pursues methods and technologies to support safe, productive human space travel. Through science conducted in laboratories, ground-based analogs, commercial missions, the International Space Station and Artemis missions, the program scrutinizes how spaceflight affects human bodies and behaviors. Such research drives the program’s
quest
to innovate ways that keep astronauts healthy and mission ready as human space exploration expands to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
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