NASA presents its “home on Mars”, in which four people will live for more than a year

On Tuesday, April 11, NASA introduced Mars Dune Alpha, a house where four people simulate life on Mars.

While waiting to be able to truly walk the Earth of the Red Planet, NASA subjects will act as if they are. This Tuesday, April 11, the US space agency presented the house in which, starting in June, four people will be kept for more than a year to simulate life on Mars.

Mars Dune Alpha is actually located at the NASA Research Center in Houston, Texas. It measures 160 square meters and has been 3D printed. According to Grace Douglas, one of the directors of the CHAPEA program, which is overseeing this experiment, “This is one of the technologies that NASA is studying to build habitats on the surface of other planets or the moon.”

This Martian nest consists of four bedrooms, a gym, a lounging area, and several work stations. A room is also dedicated to medical procedures and residents will be able to grow their own powers thanks to a vertical farm. We do not know at the moment the names of these lucky ones, but they will not be astronauts.

In any case, they will have access to an airlock that will lead to a reconstruction of the Martian environment. Trapped people will find a floor of red sand, of course, but also a weather station, a brick-making apparatus, a mini-greenhouse, and a windmill on which they walk suspended from straps in order to reproduce the labor that requires physical activity on Mars.

Preparing for a future mission to Mars

According to Susan Bell, NASA’s program officer for the Behavioral Health and Performance Laboratory program, this mat will also make it possible to recreate situations for sample collection, information gathering, or even construction.

Grace Douglas explains that the performance and cognitive abilities of the subject will be measured at all times. For NASA, it’s a matter of estimating the “resources” as accurately as possible for a future mission to Mars, in real conditions this time. For the sake of realism, the four volunteers will be regularly exposed to the elements of stress, with water restrictions or equipment malfunctions, for example.

The first round trip to Mars hasn’t been scheduled yet, but the big one might not be scheduled for now. According to NASA chief Bill Nelson, this flight will last several years and could take place “at the end of 2030.”