After more than a year away from the outside world, four volunteers opened the door of their residence for the first time in 378 days to find their families waiting for them in a scene that brought to a close an extraordinary scientific experiment simulating life on Mars.
The volunteers were not in space, but inside a NASA facility at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, USA, as part of the second mission of the CHAPIA program.
According to NASA, the experiment ended on October 31, 2026, after it began on October 19, 2025, with the participation of Ross Elder, Ellen Ellis, James Spicer, and Matthew Montgomery.
The team lived inside a 3D-printed habitat of about 158 square meters where they grew food crops, maintained equipment, exercised, and performed virtual walks on the surface of Mars.
The participants faced prolonged isolation, limited resources, and deliberate delays in communications to simulate the challenges that astronauts might face in the future.
According to Houston Public Media, volunteers undergo two weeks of scientific assessments and interviews after leaving the country.
NASA aims to use the findings to understand the physical and psychological effects of isolation and to improve living conditions and health support on future missions to the Moon and Mars