NASA unveils recreation of Mars where volunteers will live for a year

Mars Dune Alpha, the new 3D-printed habitat at Johnson Space Center in Houston has “sandbox” filled with red dust to recreate the landscape of the mysterious planet.

The volunteers – selected from public applicants – will even do simulated “Marswalks” – using virtual reality technology and treadmills.

They will also have a helicopter-like drone and a roving robot.

The base, which at 111sq m environment is about the size of a small house, has four private crew quarters, workstations, a medical station, common lounge areas and a galley and food growing stations

The experiment is reminiscent of 2015 movie The Martian, which saw an astronaut played by Matt Damon, stranded on Mars and forced to survive.

NASA warned the realistic habitat will force the crew to face “environmental stressors such as resource limitations, isolation, and equipment failure”.

“We would have them do geology work, and then they probably would do some building tasks, and then also exploration,” said Raina MacLeod, Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog deputy project manager said.

“The robotics element is a very interesting activity that we are including for our crew.

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“It’s always good to have really stimulating tasks, especially on a long-duration analog study to keep the crew excited.

“But these activities could also be very realistic in that future Mars astronauts could utilise remote piloting drones and rovers to expand the reconnaissance radius.”

However, it won’t be quite realistic, as Mars has only a third of the gravity of Earth.

Applications have now closed for the three, one-year stints, which start this winter.

It’s not known how much volunteers will be paid. 

Before Mars, NASA plans to return to the moon.