when home becomes life support: designing habitats for mars and the moon

Inside a 1,700-square-foot structure at NASA‘s Johnson Space Center in Houston, four people are currently spending 378 days pretending Earth is 140 million miles away. Ross Elder, Ellen Ellis, Matthew Montgomery, and James Spicer entered Mars Dune Alpha on October 19th, 2025, and will remain inside until October 31st, 2026 as part of NASA’s second Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog, or CHAPEA, mission.