Mars analog habitat

A Mars analog habitat is one of several historical, existing or proposed research stations designed to simulate the physical and psychological environment of a Martian exploration mission.

While living in the habitats, crew members are mostly isolated from the outside world, survive on a diet of freeze-dried food, and may conduct field experiments while wearing protective space suits.

In one example, the remote science team used aerial images to select ten regions of scientific interest for the FMARS crew to explore and analyze.

[5] This experiment helped researchers determine more efficient methods of scouting and investigating locations of interest under the communications limitations of a crewed mission to Mars.

[8] Soil and vapor samples from the MDRS habitat were also found to contain significant amounts of methanogens, which were not previously suspected to thrive in a desert environment.

The primary focus of these experiments was to study the effects of long-term isolation on a small crew, so that the psychological difficulties of a voyage to Mars and an extended stay on its surface may be better understood.

An important focus of the Mars-500 research has been the early diagnosis of “adverse personal dynamics” which would affect cooperation among the crew, as well as the development of methods to overcome such issues.

[11] Researchers decided that any sort of psychological support on future missions would need to be tailored to each individual crew member, not just to the group as a whole or to subgroups belonging to different space agencies.

While female Russian biologist Marina Tugusheva participated in the 2007 experiment, women were reportedly excluded from the 2009 and 2011 missions to prevent issues caused by sexual tension.

[14] Like other missions, HI-SEAS evaluates the social and psychological status of the crewmembers while they live in isolation and conduct field work in Mars-like environments and conditions.

In particular, HI-SEAS studied how “food intake in a confined and isolated setting similar to what an astronaut would experience during a mission” affects the moods of the crew members and their interactions with each other.

As part of this effort, HI-SEAS is testing software which monitors psychological welfare by analyzing text-based communication, so that future astronauts’ limited access to psychiatric help is less of an issue.

CHAPEA Mission 1 began on June 25, 2023, with crew members Kelly Haston, Ph.D (commander), Ross Brockwell (flight engineer), Nathan Jones, M.D.