--- title: Life on (not actually) Mars - The Hustle description: NASA just locked four people in a 3D-printed habitat on a fake Mars for one year. image: https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1923740441-httpsthdaily.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.comfinal_size-mars_20230705230940.webp --- # Life on (not actually) Mars ![Juliet Bennett Rylah](https://53.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/53/assets/hubspot.com/web-team/WBZ/HubSpot%20Media/Blog%202021/Images/Nav/Optimized/TheHustle_Icon_Dark.svg) [Juliet Bennett Rylah](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/author/juliet-bennett-rylah) [Juliet Bennett Rylah Twitter profile ](https://twitter.com/JBRylah) Published: July 06, 2023 Updated: October 11, 2023 Last week, NASA sent a group of brave explorers to live on Mars… sort of. ![Mars](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hs-fs/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1923740441-httpsthdaily.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.comfinal_size-mars_20230705230940.webp?width=595&height=400&name=1923740441-httpsthdaily.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.comfinal_size-mars_20230705230940.webp) The Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA) mission simulates life on Mars by putting four humans in a 3D-printed habitat in Houston for a year. **Who?** [Four paid volunteers](https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-selects-participants-for-one-year-mars-analog-mission) who we hope get along really well: - Kelly Haston, a biologist - Ross Brockwell, a structural engineer - Nathan Jones, a physician - Anca Selariu, a US Navy microbiologist Selection criteria was the same as for any astronaut, requiring a combination of STEM, piloting, and/or military experience. **And they’re inside a 3D-printed habitat?** Yep. Icon, a company that builds 3D-printed homes, created the 1.7k-square-foot Mars Dune Alpha out of its proprietary building material, Lavacrete. Inside are four tiny private bedrooms, workstations, a medical area, communal lounge areas, a kitchen, two bathrooms, and a place to grow food. Outside is a 1.2k-square-foot area called the “[sandbox](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf0OMzhv9-s).” It’s filled with red-dyed sand to mimic Mars’ surface during simulated spacewalks. **What are they doing?** This is the [first of three](https://www.nasa.gov/chapea/about) yearlong missions planned inside the Mars Dune Alpha. The participants’ [378](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEa88ZZWAEQ)–[day](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEa88ZZWAEQ) stay will help NASA [understand](https://www.nasa.gov/feature/yearlong-mars-analog-crew-to-conduct-simulated-traverses-robotics-operations) how to best serve human needs — e.g., nutrition, exercise, personal hygiene, mental health — on real missions to Mars in the future. NASA will also study how the group copes with isolation in a confined space with limited resources, equipment failure, and other stressors. **Wanna see more?** Here’s [a video](https://twitter.com/NASA_SLS/status/1649835644494008320?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1649835644494008320%7Ctwgr%5E9891b0e3c656acbc0bbffa6e59d943a5cec33397%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.space.com%2Fnasa-mock-mars-dune-alpha-chapea-habitat-video-tour) of the habitat from NASA. 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