Mission to Mars

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Today is Wednesday, September 18th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Lindsay Mast.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: pressing the human limits of space exploration.

NASA hopes to send humans to Mars within a decade.

It’s an enormous commitment. The trip is a billion miles. The estimated time is more than a year each way and that kind of frequent flying will take a toll on the body and mind.

Mock missions are helping scientists collect the information they need to make sure the astronauts are ready for the stress.

MAST: One of them is known as the CHAPEA Mission, standing for Crew Habitat and Performance Analog. It’s staffed by volunteers, not astronauts and it concluded in July.

The 2 women, 2 men crew lived as though they were on Mars for a year. WORLD Reporter Bonnie Pritchett explores what scientists found out and what they didn’t.

AUDIO: [Cheers, celebration]

BONNIE PRITCHETT: Kelly Haston and her fellow “Mars inhabitants” beamed as they finally exited the CHAPEA Mission 1 habitat at Houston’s Johnson Space Center. She addressed the small welcoming committee of family, friends and NASA personnel.

KELLY HASTON: Hello! It’s actually just so wonderful to be able to say “Hello” to you all [LAUGHS]...

For 378 days Haston couldn’t say that—at least not in real time.

SUZANNE BELL: We didn't allow that in CHAPEA, because that's not what we're expecting from Mars. It's impossible to have real time communication…

That’s Suzanne Bell. She leads the Johnson Space Center Behavioral Health and Performance Lab.

BELL: I oversee a team of scientists, and what we do is explore challenges related to future space exploration, in particular, related to the psychology of future space exploration…

She co-leads the CHAPEA experiments.

BELL: What we have done with Mission one, and what we're doing with future missions, is really putting crews and individuals in a context with heavily restricted resources – the resources we would expect them to have on a Mars surface habitat mission…

Suzanne Bell, NASA’s Johnson Space Center Behavioral Health and Performance Lab Lead Photo courtesy of NASA

For instance, looking at how the crew will respond to limited living space, food selection, water, and communication with Earth.

Bell anticipates gathering a wealth of integrated data during the three, 1-year CHAPEA missions. They’ll guide everything from astronaut selection to daily task management.

Life in the CHAPEA habitat mimics life in isolated confinement. That’s one of the top five threats to human physical and mental health during long-term space missions. The remaining four include:

Space radiation.

Distance from Earth.

Gravity.

And a closed hostile environment.

Testing human physical and mental endurance to those threats is limited on Earth. Knowing they are safe from space hazards can affect the volunteers’ behavior. For example, the CHAPEA habitat is a 17-hundred square foot building nestled safely inside a warehouse.

BELL: To date anyway, we can't perfectly replicate all five of our major spaceflight hazards, right? We're not going to actively radiate people and put them in a hostile environment…

The International Space Station has its experimental limits. It orbits Earth just inside its protective magnetic field. And it’s much bigger than the Mars vehicle concept designs that will ferry 4 to 6 astronauts.

Since researchers can’t replicate the life-threatening hazards that can affect the crews’ health, what on Earth is analogous to living in an isolated, confined space? A place where stepping outside for a breath of fresh air isn’t an option?

GRANT KIDD: I think it's a really good question, because, I mean, I think that the big issue going forward with NASA is duration, how long they're going to be confined...

That’s Navy Captain Grant Kidd. He’s a neurologist stationed at the Naval Experimental Diving Unit in Panama City, Florida. He believes life aboard a submarine can simulate life in a space vehicle.

KIDD: There's times on a submarine mission where they'll commit to, for instance, going under the Arctic ice cap. Once they make that dive, they're not coming up. So, if there is an emergency, they've got to deal with it…

Because help isn’t coming.

As astronauts travel farther from Earth their connection to material and emotional support back home grows thin. That can compound an already stressful environment.

KIDD: This is kind of the realities of military life. Obviously NASA is looking to that for extended space travel. How are you going to deal with not being able to fix something if you've committed to, you know, an extended deployment. You're not coming up, you're not turning around…

NASA astronaut Stephen Bowen understands mentally preparing for sea and space exploration has its Earth-bound limitations. He served 14 years with the U.S. Navy, including two, 100-day submarine deployments.

STEPHEN BOWEN: It's a really, really hard problem to solve. On the submarine training side, you know, we do a lot of shore training, and the crew member knows if they turn this valve on the shore, it's not necessarily hot steam behind it. That sort of thing. The consequences of the actions you have when you know it's a simulation: Your brain knows. And so you have to rely on people's understanding of the absolute consequences…

Bowen also flew 4 missions aboard the International Space Station. Last year, he spent 186 days in orbit.

Astronaut Stephen Bowen aboard the International Space Station. Photo courtesy of NASA

BOWEN: What was interesting is that, since I had my previous experience from submarines, you kind of hit some of the same emotional touch points psychologically. But there's sort of this point somewhere about halfway. And the realization that you're just halfway, I think, is somewhat of an emotional low point…

The half-way point for a round-trip mission to Mars is about 13 months.

In April the hosts of a NASA podcast called “Houston We Have a Podcast” sent the CHAPEA crew questions and asked for recorded responses.

One question: “What would you look forward to if you were experiencing Spring.” Science officer Anca Selariu’s response reveals challenges of the mind and heart facing NASA researchers.

ANCA SELARIU: I really miss the biosphere, all the colors, all the smells, all the sounds of Earth. I miss wind and water in all forms and sun. And I've never in my entire life been so aware of my connection to Earth.

NASA is screening candidates for CHAPEA Mission 2 slated for next year. Mission 3 launches in 2027. Comprehensive data analysis won’t be available until all three missions conclude.

SELARIU: Why go to Mars? Because its possible…

From the CHAPEA habitat front stoop, the crew expressed gratitude for being selected to take this one step toward Mars.

Here’s Selariu.

SELARIU: I am astonished that I got to live at Mars Dune Alpha and that I got to contribute to the one thing that is dearest to my heart – bringing life to Mars.

Reporting for WORLD I’m Bonnie Pritchett in Houston, Texas.

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