If you’ve ever wanted to visit Mars, then NASA has an offer for you. Though the agency isn’t sending humans to the red planet quite yet, it is preparing for a future crewed Mars mission by creating a simulated mission here on Earth — and it’s looking for volunteers.
Simulated missions look at people’s psychological and health responses to conditions similar to what astronauts would experience on a deep space mission. In the case of the Mars mission, called Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog or CHAPEA, the aim is to simulate a Martian environment using a 3D-printed habitat and a set of Mars-related tasks that crew members must perform.
The CHAPEA study had its first group of volunteers enter their 1,700-square-foot simulated Mars environment in June last year, where they will stay for a little over a year. And now NASA is recruiting another set of volunteers to join a future team.
“NASA is looking for healthy, motivated U.S. citizens or permanent residents who are non-smokers, 30-55 years old, and proficient in English for effective communication between crewmates and mission control,” NASA said in a release. “Applicants should have a strong desire for unique, rewarding adventures and interest in contributing to NASA’s work to prepare for the first human journey to Mars.”
The aim is to recruit crew members who would be similar to those who would go on a future Mars mission. So NASA is trying scientists, who have a master’s degree in a STEM field like biology, mathematics, or engineering, or pilots who have at least 1,000 hours of piloting experience.
The new set of recruits will enter the CHAPEA habitat in the spring of 2025 and will stay there for a full year. The role is paid, but it won’t be easy work, as crew members will have to deal with simulated challenges, which NASA says include ” resource limitations, equipment failures, communication delays, and other environmental stressors,” as well as handling day to day operations including “simulated spacewalks, robotic operations, habitat maintenance, exercise, and crop growth.”
If you’re interested in applying, the deadline is April 2, and you can apply via the CHAPEA website.
After 13 suborbital test flights and more than $15 billion in development costs, SpaceX's Starship has finally reached orbit. The 407-foot megarocket, the most powerful ever built, lifted off from Starbase, Texas, on Monday and delivered its first real payload on it's 14th attempt. The celebration came with an asterisk, though, since SpaceX had to cut the planned 10-hour mission to roughly three hours.
https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/2104601695711904180
SpaceX is finally ready to give Starship its biggest test yet. The company says the massive rocket's 14th test flight is scheduled for September 22, when it will attempt to put the upper stage into Earth orbit for the first time. The launch is currently pending regulatory approval, with a 75-minute window opening at 7:15 a.m. CT.
Starship has 26 Starlink satellites to deliver
For decades, humanity has looked up at the Moon and wondered what it would be like to live on it. Think sprawling cities, factories, research centers, and permanent human settlements. Unfortunately, there is one fairly fundamental problem with that vision.
A new study published in Frontiers in Space Technologies argues that even the Moon's potentially enormous reserves of frozen water may be nowhere near enough to support city-sized populations sustainably. Researchers Martin Elvis and Jonathan McDowell estimate that the permanently shadowed regions near the lunar poles could contain roughly one billion tons of water. It sounds like an extraordinary amount until you put a million thirsty humans next to it.