Overview

• Ross Elder, Ellen Ellis, Matthew Montgomery, and James Spicer will enter the 1,700-square-foot, 3D-printed Mars Dune Alpha habitat at Johnson Space Center on Oct. 19, 2025 for a 378-day stay ending Oct. 31, 2026.
• NASA assigned crew roles as Commander (Elder), Medical Officer (Ellis), Science Officer (Montgomery), and Flight Engineer (Spicer) for the surface-operations analog.
• Emily Phillips and Laura Marie are designated as alternate crew members for the CHAPEA mission.
• The simulation will impose communication delays, resource limits, equipment failures, isolation, confinement, and high-tempo simulated Mars walks to evaluate risks to crew health and performance.
• Crew activities include robotic operations, cultivation of a vegetable garden, and testing exploration hardware such as a potable water dispenser and diagnostic medical equipment, with the mission serving as CHAPEA’s second yearlong run following the July 6, 2024 conclusion of the first.