Four volunteers leave simulated Mars habitat after 378 days

Four NASA volunteers finished a 378-day simulated Mars mission on Oct. 31, 2026, at Johnson Space Center in Houston, NASA said, to help the agency plan its Moon Base and Mars missions.

NASA's release names the crew: Matthew Montgomery, James Spicer, Ross Elder and Ellen Ellis. It says they tested systems, kept crops growing, managed limited resources and communication delays, and carried out simulated moonwalk-style outings called extravehicular activities. The photo, credited to NASA/James Blair, shows them outside for the first time in more than a year.

Local coverage of the event reported that the crew went in on Oct. 19, 2025, and lived in a 3D-printed habitat of 1,700 square feet inside a hangar. Johnson director Vanessa Wyche said messages ran 26 to 44 minutes each way. One detail stands out: co-investigator Suzanne Bell said the crew once went two weeks with no contact, to mimic the Sun sitting between Earth and Mars. Spicer said he received more than 4,000 emails.

What is not yet known is what the crew's data shows. Bell said the data collected during the mission arrived on that communication delay, so the first full debriefs happen now.

The crew begins two weeks of post-mission evaluations with NASA scientists, according to local coverage quoting Bell. NASA plans to turn CHAPEA into a broader Moon and Mars Exploration Analog. NASA estimates it could start as soon as August 2027, again inside Johnson Space Center for a year, according to the same coverage.

Stay curious.

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