365 days in 1,700 square feet: what is known and unknown about Houston's simulated Mars habitat

1,700 square feet, four people, 365 days. That is the scale of life inside a 3D-printed simulated Mars habitat in Houston, in the United States. On 19 October 2026, the US space agency NASA announced that the four crew members of the second Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA) mission had completed a year inside.

According to NASA, they are scheduled to leave the habitat on Saturday 31 October 2026 and be reunited with their families. As for what the year has done to their bodies and minds, NASA had not published any research results as of October 2026.

A 3D-printed "Mars" in Houston

The mission takes place at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston and is the second CHAPEA mission. The habitat was built using 3D printing and measures about 1,700 square feet.

The crew entered on 19 October 2025, and the mission is planned to last 378 days. By the time NASA published its one-year milestone article, they had completed 365 days.

Each of the four has a role: commander Ross Elder, medical officer Ellen Ellis, science officer Matthew Montgomery and flight engineer James Spicer.

What they have done during the year

This is not simply confinement. According to NASA's description, the crew simulate working and living on Mars:

• Growing crops, including crop science experiments such as hydroponic cultivation and seed germination.
• Managing limited resources.
• Coping with communication delays with the outside world.
• Wearing spacesuits for activities outside the habitat on a simulated Martian surface.
• Undergoing health monitoring such as blood draws and blood pressure checks, as well as exercise performance tests that include oxygen-consumption tracking.

NASA's mission page also says researchers will record how the crew respond to simulated stressors such as limited resources, isolation, communication delays and equipment failures. The page adds that the items listed are not a complete list.

Communication delay: two sources, two numbers

The figures in NASA's two sources do not match. The Mission 2 page cites a 22-minute communication delay, while the one-year milestone article says the research may help develop support systems for delays of up to 45 minutes each way. NASA does not explain the difference in either text, so this article quotes each figure from its original source.

What is known is the direction; the results remain blank

NASA's Mission 2 page says the research aims to understand how the crew adapt and respond to various environmental stressors. The one-year milestone article says the health and performance data collected can help balance mission priorities and develop methods to counter spaceflight risks on future long-duration Mars missions.

The article lists possible research directions, including:

• How limited food and exercise systems affect mission objectives, including activities outside the habitat on the simulated Martian surface.
• Helping to develop crew autonomy and decision-support systems to cope with communication delays of up to 45 minutes each way.

As of October 2026, NASA has not published any research results. The Mission 2 page currently carries only mission updates, milestone news for days 100, 200 and 300 and for one year, plus podcasts and photos. NASA says its science teams are preparing to process the data, and that about two weeks of post-mission evaluations and debriefs will follow the crew's exit.

In other words, there is currently no official data on the four crew members' stress levels, how they got along, or their sleep, fitness and nutrition, and this article does not speculate.

What Mars-500 recorded about sleep

An earlier reference point on how long isolation affects people comes from Mars-500. This simulated Mars mission, held in a sealed facility in Moscow, lasted 520 days with six male participants, and its findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). What follows is based on Science News' January 2013 report on the study:

• Wrist-worn monitors showed that the crew became less active over time; in the final quarter of the mission, average daily sleep was more than 30 minutes longer than in the first quarter.
• One crew member's sleep cycle shifted to about 25 hours, putting them out of step with the others' waking and sleeping times for about a fifth of the time. The researchers noted that this could be dangerous in an emergency requiring the whole crew to respond.
• Four of the six had sleep problems, with large individual differences; for example, one crew member's sleep gradually decreased and their performance on alertness tests also fell.

Limits of the older study

Mars-500 had only six participants, and this article relies solely on Science News' report without checking the journal paper directly. The study differs from CHAPEA Mission 2 in location, duration and crew size, so it cannot be used to infer the situation of these four crew members. This article did not find a systematic review to cite on the overall effects of long isolation on stress and teamwork.

On 31 October, the four are scheduled to leave this 1,700-square-foot space and be reunited with their families. What the year has done to them will not be known until the data have been analysed.

Prices and details correct as of October 2026

Compiled by the F50 Editorial Team from public sources, for general reference only and not professional advice. Details are correct as of the publication date and may change.