NASA, looking for volunteers to live a year (fake) on Mars

A whole year to spend trying to live in the environment of Mars. NASA is looking for candidates for an “analog mission”: selections are open from Friday to find four people who want to spend 12 months on Mars Dune Alpha, a 3D printed fake Martian habitat, “To prevent and solve potential problems in future human spaceflight missions to the Moon and Mars”. The US agency has planned three of these experiments: the first will begin next fall at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.

Volunteers will be paid to participate in the mission, which also includes spacewalks. They can only have limited contacts with families and friends and will have to learn to cope with limited resources and equipment failures. In a large space of just under 160 square meters. Claustrophobic? According to Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, on the contrary, spending “a year away from the demands of your normal life” is an opportunity to experience “incredible freedom”, as he explained to Sky News.

These missions, as noted by Grace Douglas, a NASA scientist, are fundamental “to test solutions to meet the complex needs of life on the Martian surface,” he explained. «The simulations on Earth will help us to understand and face physical and mental challenges that the astronauts will have to face before leaving ».

Applicants must have a master in Stem disciplines (science, technology, engineering or mathematics) or a curriculum with at least one thousand flight hours. But also medical graduates or candidates with 4 years of experience as military officers are admitted to the selections. NASA has also specified that only US citizens or US residents can apply: they must be aged between 30 and 35 years and be in good physical health. Furthermore, they must not be prone to motion sickness (movement sickness, i.e. motion sickness or seasickness).