Space travel: How does it feel to live and work on Mars?

US space agency Nasa is gearing up to send four explorers on a 12-month-long Mars Simulations in the Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA), which is scheduled to launch in spring 2025.

The volunteers will be living and working inside a 1,700-square-foot, 3D-printed habitat based at Nasa’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. The habitat, called the Mars Dune Alpha, simulates the challenges of a mission on Mars, including resource limitations, equipment failures, delays in communication, and other environmental stressors, Nasa’s website explains. The volunteers will also engage in simulated spacewalks, robotic operations, habitat maintenance, exercise, and crop growth.

Also read: Explained: All you need to know about Nasa’s PACE satellite

CHAPEA is a series of missions that will simulate year-long stays on the surface of Mars. This mission will be as Mars-realistic as possible. Nasa is currently working to set up a long-term presence for scientific discovery and exploration on the moon through the Artemis campaign. Similarly, CHAPEA missions aim to provide important scientific data to validate systems and come up with solutions for future missions to the red planet, Nasa explains.

Currently, the first CHAPEA crew is more than halfway through their mission. Nasa is using research obtained through the simulated missions to provide better crew health and performance support during the actual Mars expeditions. According to Nasa, this is the second of three planned ground-based missions.

For this mission, Nasa is looking for healthy, motivated US citizens or permanent residents who are non-smokers, aged 30 to 55 years old, and proficient in English to make communication effective.

According to Nasa's website, a master’s degree in a STEM field such as engineering, mathematics, or biological, physical or computer science from an accredited institution with at least two years of professional STEM experience or a minimum of one thousand hours piloting an aircraft is required to be considered for the mission.

Furthermore, people who have completed two years of work toward a doctoral program in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, completed a medical degree, or a test pilot program will also be considered.

The deadline for applicants is 2 April.

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