NASA selected four volunteers to participate in a simulated Mars mission. The crew members are: Abhishek Bhagat, Kamak Ebadi, Susan Hilbig, Ariana Lutsic. 

The crew will live and work in the Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA) facility for 45 days. The facility is located at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. 

NASA is also conducting a one-year Mars analog mission, known as the Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA). The first crew for this mission entered the CHAPEA habitat on June 25, 2023, and will spend 378 days simulating a Mars surface mission. The crew members are: 

• Kelly Haston, commander 
• Ross Brockwell, flight engineer 
• Nathan Jones, medical officer 
• Anca Selariu, science officer

NASA selected a crew of four for the agency’s next Human Exploration Research Analog mission, a simulated mission to Mars. From left are Abhishek Bhagat, Susan Hilbig, Kamak Ebadi, and Ariana Lutsic

NASA selected the crew members for the CHAPEA mission using the same criteria as astronauts. This means they needed a master’s degree and professional experience in the STEM field or extensive experience piloting an aircraft. 

Here are some details about the crew members: 

• Kelly Haston: A research scientist who studies human disease and is the mission commander. 
• Ross Brockwell: A structural engineer who is the flight engineer. 
• Nathan Jones: An emergency medicine physician who is the medical officer. 
• Anca Selariu: A U.S. Navy microbiologist who is the science officer. 

The crew members will live in a cramped space without contact with other people. The objectives of the mission are to optimize human health and performance.

Abhishek Bhagat, Kamak Ebadi, Susan Hilbig, and Ariana Lutsic will enter the ground-based HERA (Human Exploration Research Analog) facility on Friday, Jan. 26, to live and work like astronauts for 45 days during the simulated mission to the Red Planet. Crew members will exit the facility on March 11, after they “return” to Earth. Two additional volunteers are available as backup crew members.

Without leaving Earth, HERA allows scientists to study how crew members adapt to the isolation, confinement, and work conditions astronauts will experience during future spaceflight missions. Crew members will conduct science, operational, and maintenance tasks while facing communication delays with the outside world lasting up to five minutes as they “approach” Mars.

The new crew will participate in 18 human health studies throughout the simulated mission. The experiments will assess the psychological, physiological, and behavioral responses of crew members millions of miles away from their home planet. Ten studies are new to HERA, including seven led by scientists outside the United States. These international studies are collaborations with the United Arab Emirates’ Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre and ESA (European Space Agency).

Abhishek Bhagat is a research electrical engineer for the U.S. Army Engineering Research and Development Center’s Cold Region Research and Engineering Lab. 

Bhagat holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Nagpur University in India, a master’s degree in electrical engineering from California State University in Northridge, and a master’s degree in computer science from the University of North America in Fairfax, Virginia. He is currently pursuing a master’s degree in space systems from the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne. 

Bhagat began working as a consultant at Samsung Telecom America, which paved the way for subsequent consulting roles with Qualcomm and Sprint. He then served in the U.S. Army. When he transitioned out of active duty, he became an electronics engineer for the Federal Aviation Administration.

Kamak Ebadi is a robotics technologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California. He is a member of the spaceflight operations team responsible for managing NASA’s Perseverance Rover on Mars. Ebadi also supports NASA’s Artemis program and Mars Sample Return mission through work that helped develop orbital maps and navigation algorithms for the guided descent and precision landing of autonomous spacecraft on the Moon and Mars

Susan Hilbig, from Durham, North Carolina, is a physician assistant with a focus on aerospace medicine and human performance in isolated, confined environments. She completed her academic training at North Carolina’s Duke University, where she double majored in biology and Earth and ocean science prior to earning a master’s degree in physician assistant studies from Duke University’s School of Medicine

Ariana Lutsic is a scientist and engineer at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, specializing in research support for biological payloads on the International Space Station. Over the past seven years, she has held various roles at Kennedy, focusing on plants, animals, and hardware design

HERA is a unique 650-square-foot habitat split among two floors and a loft, designed to serve as an analog for isolation, confinement, and remote conditions in exploration scenarios

HERA, a ground-based facility, is a key component in NASA’s preparation for human missions to Mars. It offers a unique environment to study the psychological, physiological, and behavioral responses of crew members in conditions akin to those in space. The simulation includes communication delays up to five minutes, mirroring the challenges astronauts would experience as they “approach” Mars.

NASA’s Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA) program is a ground-based facility that simulates a 45-day Mars mission. The program is a key part of NASA’s preparation for human missions to Mars

The program uses a 650-square foot habitat inside the Johnson Space Center to simulate confinement and isolation. The habitat is designed to reflect a spacecraft. 

The program prepares astronauts, engineers, and teams on the ground for exploration to asteroids, Mars, and the Moon. The program focuses on how teams collaborate and communicate while in confinement. 

In 2024, NASA will carry out four simulated missions to Mars using HERA. Each mission will include a different crew of four astronaut-like research volunteers. NASA is looking for healthy individuals, between the ages of 30–55, with an advanced degree in STEM field to serve as crewmembers

HERA studies how crew members adapt to isolation, confinement, and remote conditions on Earth. Researchers conduct behavioral health, human factors, and countermeasures experiments to determine how confinement and isolation impacts cohabitation, teamwork, team cohesion, mood, performance, and overall well-being

Mars analog astronaut missions are research platforms that test new hardware and explore ways to keep crews safe and healthy. They also provide NASA with data about the strengths, limitations, and validity of planned human-robotic exploration operations

Analog missions can also: 

• Validate architecture concepts 
• Demonstrate technologies 
• Gain a deeper understanding of system-wide technical and operational challenges 
• Test life detection equipment 
• Study conditions for preservation of past life on Mars 
• Study adaptations to conditions similar to those that may occur on Mars 

Analog astronauts participate in two-week simulations where Primary Investigators conduct researches on or with human subjects

Analog astronauts participate in human spaceflight training and simulations on Earth. They simulate long-duration space missions in areas that are similar to the real missions

Analog astronauts spend most of their day writing science reports and working on experiments. They also perform simulated EVA tasks to prepare for upcoming missions. For example, trainees wear suits that simulate the microgravity that astronauts would experience during spaceflight. 

Analog astronauts are carried out by NASA, ESA, and many other research establishments and private companies

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