When Kelly Haston emerged from NASA’s year-long Mars simulation project, she was met with flashing cameras, beaming colleagues and thunderous applause.
It was a marked change from the previous 378 days, during which she had seen no one but her three crew members, all of whom shared a quiet 157-square-meter habitat at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, designed to simulate a possible mission to the red planet. .
“The stimuli are overwhelming because we’ve been in this environment for a long time and we’re very used to our routine and to each other,” said Haston, a scientist and member of the Mohawk Nation of the Six Nations of the Grand River in Ontario.
“But to be honest, I was very prepared.
As she looked out into the crowd gathered for the post-mission press conference, Haston noticed her family waiting for her and smiled from ear to ear.
“It was… a joyous moment,” she said How it happens hosted by Nil Köksal.
Work-life balance in a fake space
Haston was the mission commander for NASA’s voluntary Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA) project, the first of three planned year-long Mars simulations.
She and her colleagues Ross Brockwell, Nathan Jones and Anca Selariu entered the Martian environment on June 25, 2023, and emerged to great fanfare on July 6.
While in a 3D printed environment called Mars Dune Alpha, the team went through the motions of what daily life on Mars might look like.
Canadian scientist Kelly Haston has shared what it was like to spend more than 12 months with three crew members in a 157 square meter habitat designed by NASA to simulate a possible mission to Mars.
This meant suiting up and going on simulated “Marswalks”, growing and harvesting vegetables as a dietary supplement, collecting data on your own health, maintaining your habitat and your equipment, and generally dealing with limited resources, isolation and communication delays on a daily basis. up to 22 minutes with anyone out.
The whole thing created a strange work-life balance, says Haston.
“You roll out of your room and you’re at work,” she said. “Every day I wake up and almost as soon as I move, I weigh myself, I start collecting data about my personal health or how I’m doing.”
But otherwise, according to her, it didn’t feel like work at all.
The crew played board games and table tennis, had birthday parties, got haircuts, celebrated holidays together, and sat down every day to share a meal—made in part from ingredients they grew as a team.
“The crew felt at home because we bonded and became a unit,” Haston said. “Like a special family unit.
That special family included Jones, a doctor and crew physician, who said in a NASA press release that the trip taught him to slow down, live in the present and explore his creativity through drawing.
“I’ve learned to take time to enjoy the current season and be patient for the upcoming ones,” he said. “I even surprised myself with how well some of my sketches turned out.
Brockwell, who served as the mission’s flight engineer, says the experience taught him the importance of living sustainably for the benefit of everyone on Earth.
“I’m grateful for the opportunity to live the idea that we have to use resources faster than they can be replenished and produce waste faster than it can be processed back into resources,” Brockwell said during a post-mission press conference.
And Selariu, a U.S. Navy microbiologist, expressed excitement about being part of something bigger than herself.
“Why go to Mars? Because it’s possible,” she said. “Because the universe can unite and bring out the best in us. Because it’s the one defining step the ‘Earthlings’ will take to light the way into the next centuries.”
But as Haston and her team grew closer, she says she struggled to be away from her partner and family members, especially during tougher times.
“My family has certainly experienced some deep grief and loss,” she said, choosing not to go into further detail.
“It’s the cost of people doing space exploration, or even analogs that will one day help space exploration. I think about it very deeply. And it’s really in my heart that we did it, but it was very difficult.”
Before the simulated mission, Haston says she wouldn’t hesitate to raise her hand for a real trip to Mars. But now she’s not so sure.
“It would still give me a lot to think about, but I think my answer now is that it would be very difficult to leave your partner, to leave your people, for that amount of time because it would be much longer than a year.” ” she said.
NASA estimates that a trip to Mars could take about three years.
“That determination, it’s going to be a tremendous effort when people go, and I really applaud whoever can do it. But I’m not sure it’s going to be me.”