Four volunteers have left NASA's CHAPEA habitat in Houston after a 378-day simulated Mars mission, Reuters reported, ending the agency's second year-long surface analog.
Four research volunteers in NASA's second Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA) mission have emerged from their simulated Mars habitat at the Johnson Space Center in Houston after 378 days in isolation, according to a Reuters video report published on 2 November 2026. NASA names the Mission 2 crew as Ross Elder, Ellen Ellis, Matthew Montgomery and James Spicer, and had scheduled their stay to run until 31 October 2026. The volunteers never left Earth: the project is a ground-based rehearsal for the conditions of a long stay on another world.
CHAPEA is a series of missions that simulate year-long stays on the surface of Mars. Each mission places four crew members in an isolated 1,700-square-foot, 3D-printed habitat, where they carry out simulated spacewalks and provide data on physical and behavioral health and performance. NASA's own updates from inside the habitat described routine life, holiday celebrations, limited resources and a simulated two-week communication blackout, all designed to mimic the strain of distance and confinement that future explorers would face.
The Reuters footage shows the crew's emergence and should be read as news coverage of the end of the mission, not as scientific data. NASA says the research will help it weigh risks against interventions for long-duration exploration of the Moon and Mars, and principal investigator Grace Douglas has led the study. The first CHAPEA mission ran from 25 June 2023 to 6 July 2024, and detailed findings from this second mission have not yet been released.
