Overview
- NASA has issued a public call for four volunteers to join the Moon and Mars Exploration Analog, a roughly 14‑month research campaign that begins no earlier than August 2027 and for which selection has not yet been made.
- The study will run three mission segments in existing analog facilities at Johnson Space Center: an outbound transit in a HERA-style mock spacecraft, a surface phase in a CHAPEA-style one‑story habitat, and a simulated return transit.
- Applicants must meet strict, astronaut-like qualifications, including U.S. citizenship or green card status, STEM credentials, the ability to pass physical and psychological exams, age and height limits, no dietary restrictions, and no history of sleepwalking or use of sleeping aids.
- Researchers will measure human performance and test countermeasures for long missions by studying sleep and circadian shifts tied to the longer Martian sol, crop cultivation in limited conditions, simulated spacewalks on a sandboxed surface, and habitat layouts and procedures.
- Volunteers will be reimbursed, and NASA says the integrated MMEA campaign builds on dozens of prior analogs so the results can validate hardware, protocols and crew‑health practices that inform a sustained lunar presence and future Mars missions.