NASA's simulated Mars crew exits Houston habitat after 378 days

The crew entered the roughly 1,700-square-foot, 3D-printed habitat on Oct. 19, 2025. Commander Ross Elder, medical officer Ellen Ellis, science officer Matthew Montgomery and flight engineer James Spicer lived and worked there, according to NASA Johnson's mission description and event transcript.

NASA said the volunteers conducted simulated spacewalks, maintained the habitat, grew crops and managed limited resources and delayed communications. The agency designed the mission to help researchers understand how crews adapt to isolation and confinement during long-duration space missions. After emerging, Ellis described the crew as “analog astronauts living in captivity of our own free will,” Reuters reported.

This was NASA's second CHAPEA mission. Another four-person crew spent 378 days in isolation spanning 2023 and 2024. The Mission 2 crew was set to participate in two weeks of evaluations and debriefing with NASA scientists, according to Reuters.