Overview
- The second CHAPEA mission ended after 378 days when four volunteers exited the 160 m², windowless 3D‑printed habitat in Houston on Sunday.
- Crew members Ross Elder, Matthew Montgomery, James Spicer and Ellen Ellis were not career astronauts but met technical selection rules including a science degree and at least 1,000 flight hours.
- Inside the habitat the volunteers grew plants, ran simulated EVAs, performed maintenance, completed extensive operational reports and regularly carried out medical self‑care such as drawing their own blood.
- Communications were run in simulated Mars time so simple messages took about 22 minutes one way, a constraint used to test workflows and crew interfaces for delayed contact with Earth.
- NASA says the findings will feed into Artemis‑era and Mars planning and the CHAPEA program will resume with a next mission planned for 2027, building on analogs like Hi‑Seas and Mars500.