NASA CHAPEA crew to exit 378-day Mars habitat simulation Oct. 31

NASA’s CHAPEA Mission 2 crew will exit the 1,700-square-foot 3D-printed habitat at Johnson Space Center in Houston on Oct. 31, 2026, completing a 378-day simulated Mars mission that began Oct. 19, 2025.

The four-person team includes Mission Commander Ross Elder, Medical Officer Ellen Ellis, Science Officer Matthew Montgomery, and Flight Engineer James Spicer. NASA assigned each role within the simulated mission setup, and the four lived in isolation inside the habitat for more than a year.

NASA will livestream the CHAPEA Mission 2 egress (exit) ceremony on Oct. 31, with NASA Johnson Center Director Vanessa Wyche and astronaut Jack Hathaway providing remarks alongside the crew. The ceremony begins at 3 p.m. EDT on Oct. 31 and streams live on NASA Johnson’s YouTube and social media. U.S. media must contact NASA Johnson’s newsroom by 2 p.m. on Oct. 30 to attend or request virtual interviews after mission completion.

NASA will stream the departure ceremony live at 3 p.m. EDT and make it available to media on-site and online.

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During the mission, the crew conducted simulated spacewalks, performed habitat maintenance, grew plants, exercised, and operated under deep-space operational constraints. NASA created these tasks to reflect the work future astronauts would carry out on the Martian surface.

After exiting on Oct. 31, the crew will take part in two weeks of post-mission evaluations and debriefs with NASA researchers. NASA science teams are preparing to process performance and health data collected on the crew, and the data may reveal how limited food and exercise systems influence the agency’s ability to achieve mission goals such as spacewalks on the Martian surface.

NASA designed the second CHAPEA mission to generate health and performance data to optimize food system design, crew time allocation, and bandwidth usage on NASA’s Deep Space Network, the network it uses to communicate with distant spacecraft. The findings will guide flight doctors and psychologists as they develop medical care and behavioral support for crews on long missions outside Earth orbit.

The isolated, resource-limited habitat lets researchers watch crew dynamics and individual performance across long stretches without the expense and danger of real spaceflight. CHAPEA missions work as a testbed for human factors research tied to Artemis lunar missions and possible future Moon Base operations.

Michael Stenger, chief scientist for NASA’s Human Research Program, said combining the Mars-realistic analog with physiological, psychological, and performance measures will let NASA translate knowledge to Moon Base and beyond. Grace Douglas, CHAPEA principal investigator, said the team is proud of the crew for their commitment and achievements over the last year on a fast-paced, highly demanding mission.

NASA sources disagree on Mars communication delay estimates relevant to CHAPEA, with one citing delays of up to 20 minutes one way and another citing delays lasting up to 45 minutes each way. The discrepancy appears between separate agency publications covering the same mission. Mars is located about 140 million miles from Earth, according to NASA.

NASA plans to send humans to Mars as early as the 2030s, and Moon Base will be humanity’s first lunar outpost, currently in the first of three phases running until 2029.