One of NASA’s strangest, most daunting missions just wrapped up – and its crew didn’t even leave Earth’s atmosphere. 

Four crew members emerged over the weekend after spending a full year cooped up inside a 1,700-square-foot habitat designed to perfectly simulate life on Mars. The mission, stationed at Johnson Space Center in Houston, is the next best thing to a real mission to Mars, giving scientists an opportunity for a lower stakes run-through without the extreme risks posed by the red planet.

The CHAPEA (Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog) mission kicked off on October 19, 2025 and was the second of its kind, following a previous isolation mission that ended in 2024. This time around, four crew members spent a total of 378 days in a facility extruded by an enormous 3D printer that was crafted to resemble a real-life Martian habitat, complete with living areas, work spaces, and even the capability for simulated spacewalks.

The brave souls willing to boldly go into confinement in the name of science included medical officer Ellen Ellis, mission commander Ross Elder, science officer Matthew Montgomery, and flight engineer James Spicer.

“To my crewmates, it’s been a hell of a year – analog astronauts living in captivity of our own free will,” Ellis said in a press conference after emerging from the habitat. And their work isn’t done yet, with the crew members scheduled to spend two weeks debriefing and undergoing evaluations after the unusual experience.

Spending a year stuck inside a Mars simulation isn’t everyone’s idea of a good time, but the crew members had plenty of tasks to complete and were studied every step of the way.

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