NASA’s plans for the future of space exploration are far from modest: in 2024, the US agency plans to return to the Moon with the Artemis Mission, which will lead to women to our natural satellite. The results of the Artemis Mission will already mark the beginning of the next step: sending astronauts to Mars.
The trip to the Moon takes just a few days, while the trip to Mars can take almost a year. But the space agencies don’t just want a trip back to the red planet, they want their astronauts to live there for a while. For a tour of this proportion, it is necessary to study the scenarios and understand if the backpackers themselves would be ready, physically and emotionally, for work. This is one of the goals of NASA’s Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA) mission. The idea is to simulate the environment of a possible Martian space station.
For now, no one is going to space. NASA is recruiting volunteers to spend a year in Mars Dune Alpha, a 160 square meter complex located inside the Johnson Space Center in Texas. There will be three missions in total, each with four crew members. The first is scheduled to start in the second half of 2022, while the others should take place in 2024 and 2025.
The module in which the volunteers will be hosted was designed by the architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) and will be printed entirely in 3D. The room has a kitchen, office, exercise space, living room, food growing station, medical area and exclusive quarters for each crew member. You can get a better idea of the plant in the following video:
Volunteers will receive a salary for their work, but the amount was not disclosed by NASA. It may seem like a paid vacation on a modern Airbnb, but the mission will not be simple: the crew will have to conduct scientific research, repair parts of the housing, manage resource use, communicate with the outside world, simulate spacewalks, and more functions. Remember that aspiring astronauts will be simulating life as realistically as possible on Mars – that is, stressful factors such as limited resources, isolation, equipment failure and significant workloads will be part of everyday life.
Nor is any space lover who can participate. The selection process will be similar to the one made by NASA to recruit your astronauts. First, the agency is looking for US citizens or US permanent residents between the ages of 30 and 55. In addition, the volunteer must be proficient in English, must not be a smoker and must be healthy. Candidates undergo a series of physical assessments, and finalists take psychological and psychiatric tests.
In addition to being in the gym, the brain also needs to be exercised. Volunteers must have a doctoral degree and two years of professional experience in fields related to science, technology, engineering or mathematics. Doctors of medicine or bachelors with at least four years of experience in the aforementioned areas will also be considered. Pilots with at least 1,000 flight hours on jet aircraft are also eligible to apply.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, having a complete vaccination also became a prerequisite for the mission, in addition to a negative test for the disease obtained by the volunteer himself. Registration will be available neste link until September 17, 2021.
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