- NASA volunteers completed 378-day Mars simulation
- Mission mimicked Mars conditions and tasks
- Missed major world events, including Hamas-Israel conflict
After 378 days in a 3D-printed Mars-imitation bunker in Texas, four NASA volunteers, Kelly Haston, Anca Selariu, Ross Brockwell, and Nathan Jones, were eventually released. However, they may have missed a lot.
NASA volunteers who spent more than a year in a mock Mars bunker have finished their assignment.
Kelly Haston, Anca Selariu, Ross Brockwell, and Nathan Jones were released Saturday at about 10 p.m. UK time after 378 days in a 3D-printed Mars-imitation bunker in Texas.
Ms Selariu said restoring life to Mars was the “one thing dearest to my heart” at a news conference after they were permitted back into the world.
She commented that her “beloved friends and family have always been there when I needed them”, so she’ll “always have them in my heart and memory wherever I go.
The volunteers were part of NASA’s Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA) project, which began on June 25 last year.
According to NASA, during that period, they replicated Mars mission operations, including “Mars walks,” farmed and ate crops like tomatoes, peppers, and leafy greens, maintained their equipment, and lived in realistic Mars conditions.
This entailed communication delays with Earth, limited supplies, and isolation.
The crew is the first of three to do such missions at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
The Mars Dune Alpha, a 3D-printed structure, is defined as “an isolated 1,700-square-foot habitat.”
This marks the conclusion of the first planned programme, which aimed to assist the US space agency in preparing for the real deal.
NASA is still planning a return to the Moon, which will serve as a springboard for Mars exploration.
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What they might have missed:
While the connection with NASA was delayed, individuals on the expedition may have been unaware of what was happening worldwide.
Here are some of the events they might have missed while they were locked away:
- Hamas assaulted Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people and kidnapping 240 captives, according to Israel. Israeli soldiers retaliated by invading Gaza, killing more than 38,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.
- While the imitation-Mars people will be familiar with climate change, global temperature records were shattered as they completed their journey.
- A New York jury found Donald Trump guilty of fabricating corporate documents to conduct election fraud, making him the first former US president to be legally convicted.
- When the volunteers entered the programme, South Koreans were a year or two older than they are now after the country abandoned its conventional age-counting method to align with the rest of the world.
- While they lost out on a lot of music, movies, and popular culture, the most significant occasion they may have missed was the theatrical release of Barbie and Oppenheimer.
- The Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed after a tanker collided with it.
- They spent more time in prison than Lord David Cameron did in his job as foreign secretary upon his surprise return to British politics.
- Wikileaks founder Julian Assange agreed to plead guilty to a single federal offence in exchange for his release to Australia. He was released the following day.
