NASA's CHAPEA Mars-simulation crew emerges after more than a year of isolation

The four-member CHAPEA crew stepped outside for the first time in over a year after completing a simulated Mars mission on October 31, 2026. Crew members Matthew Montgomery, James Spicer, Ross Elder, and Ellen Ellis spent more than a year inside the analog habitat. CHAPEA, short for Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog, is designed to study how people cope with the physical and psychological demands of long-duration deep-space missions. The mission provides NASA with data on crew health and performance to inform future human missions to Mars. The crew's return marks the conclusion of the simulated journey.