The simulated mission to Mars was part of NASA's Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog project.
ADVERTISEMENTVolunteer crew members who spent over a year inside a simulated Mars environment emerged from their craft over the weekend.
Kelly Haston, Anca Selariu, Ross Brockwell and Nathan Jones entered the 3D-printed habitat on June 25, 2023, at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
It was part of the US space agency's series of analogue missions to simulate year-long stays on Mars.
The crew simulated different operations including "Marswalks" and growing vegetables to supplement their food.
They "operated under additional stressors a Mars crew will experience, including communication delays with Earth, resource limitations, and isolation," NASA said.
Haston, the mission commander, began with a simple, “Hello.”
“It’s actually just so wonderful to be able to say ‘hello’ to you all,” she said.
Jones, a physician and the mission medical officer, said their 378 days in confinement “went by quickly".
The group lived and worked inside the space of fewer than 160 square metres.
Two additional such analogue missions are planned and crews will continue conducting simulated spacewalks and gathering data on factors related to physical and behavioural health and performance, NASA said.
The four volunteers spoke of the gratitude they had for each other and those who waited patiently outside, as well as lessons learned about a prospective manned mission to Mars and life on Earth.
Brockwell, the crew's flight engineer, said the mission showed him the importance of living sustainably, saying he was "grateful for the chance to live the idea that we must utilise resources no faster than they can be replenished and produce waste no faster than they can be processed back into resources".
Science officer Anca Selariu said she had been asked many times why there is a fixation on Mars.
“Why go to Mars? Because it’s possible,” she said. "Because space can unite and bring out the best in us. Because it’s one defining step that ‘Earthlings’ will take to light the way into the next centuries.”
