NASA ends CHAPEA 2 Mars simulation after 378 days

Four crew members stepped out of a sealed habitat at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston on Oct. 31, 2026, after 378 days inside, concluding a simulated Mars mission that had begun Oct. 19, 2025. The volunteers spent more than a year in isolation as part of CHAPEA 2. Softonic EN identified them as Commander Ross Elder, Flight Engineer James Spicer, Medical Officer Ellen Ellis, and Science Officer Matthew Montgomery. NASA named the four and showed their photo positions when they emerged after more than a year inside.

The team occupied a sealed, 1,700-square-foot, 3D-printed habitat located at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Inside, they simulated conditions at a distance of 140 million miles from Earth.

The crew’s daily routine involved simulated spacewalks, robotic operations, exercise, maintenance, and growing peppers and tomatoes. They also tested systems, cared for crops, handled limited resources and communication delays, and performed extravehicular activities. The agency said the work took place during more than a year inside the analog.

CHAPEA insights will support NASA’s design of a future Moon Base and planning for Mars missions. NASA described CHAPEA as a method for observing how isolation, stress, routine, and limited supplies affect a crew over time. The agency expects the information to guide future missions, particularly where astronauts work with far less support from Earth.

According to NASA, CHAPEA 2 ranks as the second simulation in a planned series of three yearlong efforts. The agency is taking applications for a wider Moon and Mars Exploration Analog campaign set to begin no earlier than August 2027.

Delays in communication reached 22 minutes at points during the mission. The conditions included isolation, resource limits, airlock procedures, equipment failures, and a simulated blackout that lasted two weeks. The team endured these harsh Mars-style conditions throughout the year. Montgomery said talking to Mars allows no instant phone call or video chat, so much becomes written and crews must consider how long messages take to send.

The agency has limited experience with time-delayed communication and uses CHAPEA to gain experience through experiments like this. He described time-delayed communication as a key part of the mission that will help build new processes for surface missions where mission control has less integration. Montgomery said astronauts on Mars might carry out spacewalks daily, a pace NASA does not know, and this requires information on whether it influences thinking or physical performance. Montgomery compared the potential daily spacewalk tempo on Mars to the space station.

Matthew Montgomery, a 39-year-old graduate of UCF’s electrical engineering program twice over, served as CHAPEA’s science officer. In his role as science officer, he brought knowledge of LED lighting, robotics, controlled environment agriculture, and embedded control systems to the mission. He signed up for the mission following an 18-month application and screening process, leaving his family and Floating Lava Studios, his film production company in Los Angeles, for more than a year.

He was not a trained astronaut or NASA scientist.

The agency shared images of the crew outside the habitat for the first time since the simulation started. The team stood outside together on Oct. 31, 2026, after more than a year in the habitat. The photo credit for the crew’s first outdoor appearance goes to NASA/James Blair. The agency shared the crew’s 3 PM Eastern exit replay on YouTube and its social channels.