After more than a year, four scientists left the facility of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which partially imitated the conditions of a human mission on Mars. They left the Mars Dune Alpha module with an area of 160 square meters, which is located in Houston, on Saturday afternoon local time with undisguised joy, AFP reported on Sunday.
Photo: SITA/AP, NASA
Scientists Kelly Haston, Anca Selariu, Ross Brockwell and Nathan Jones spent 378 days in a facility that simulated a stay on Mars.
Four volunteers started their stay at the facility on June 25 last year. They spent 378 days in it. The goal was to simulate some of the conditions a human crew on a Mars mission would likely experience. Among other things, the scientists were engaged in growing vegetables, maintaining the equipment and performing simulations of movement on the surface of Mars. According to NASA representative Steve Koerner, the scientific analyzes focused primarily on diet.
In addition, project participants were exposed to specific stressors such as isolation and “slowed communication” with Earth, NASA said.
The participants of the mission Kelly Hastonová, Anca Selariuová, Ross Brockwell and Nathan Jones did not hide their joy that they could leave the module and meet their loved ones, according to AFP. “I’m probably going to cry in front of you,” Jones, who is a doctor in civilian life, said moments before he actually started crying after meeting his wife.
The experimental module was made using 3D printing and contained, among other things, a gym or a place to grow vegetables. According to its estimates, NASA could send a human crew to Mars in the 30s of this century. Even sooner, however, he is planning to send people to the moon again.
Source: vat.pravda.sk
