The CHAPEA crew checks in on their ninth month in a Mars simulated habitat and a Mars architecture expert explains CHAPEA’s role in NASA’s long-term plans to explore the Red Planet. HWHAP Episode 333.
Houston, we have a podcast.
Welcome to the official podcast of the NASA Johnson Space center, episode 333, Mars audio log number nine.
I'm Gary Jordan, and I'll be your host.
Today on this podcast, we bring in the experts, scientists, engineers, astronauts, all to let you know what's going on in the world of human spaceflight and more.
We're back with another audio log from the Chepea crew.
ChEPEA, or crew health and performance exploration analog is a year long analog mission in a habitat right here on Earth that's simulating very closely what it would be like to live on Mars.
We're lucky enough to have monthly check in with the crew commander Kelly Hasten, flight engineer Ross Brockwell, medical officer Nathan Jones, and science officer Anka Salaryu to meet the needs of fitting in with this analog and simulating significant communication delays between Earth and Mars that prohibit us from having a live conversation.
The crew is recording an audio log based off of the questions that we draft for them.
On this episode, we play the recording of their 9th month in the habitat, which is here at the NASA Johnson Space center and was recorded in March 2024.
We're also bringing on a special guest to learn even more about shipyard.
This month is on a broader topic of Mars architecture.
Chepea is helping scientists to understand what its like from the human health and performance perspective to live on Mars.
NASAS current human exploration initiatives with sustained human exploration of low Earth orbit and the moon serve as a pathway for getting us to the red planet.
And NASA has defined this pathway in public documentation.
You can look it up now.
The URL is NASA dot gov moontomarsarchitecture.
Weve had a few recent episodes that expand on this architecture because theres a lot to it.
But on this episode, were bringing on a special guest to help us understand how Chepea fits into the mix.
Were welcoming Michelle Courtney to the podcast, who goes by Coco, and shes the lead for crew support systems integration for the Mars architecture team, also based here at the Johnson Space Center, Coco helps us to unravel more about Mars Mission architecture and how Shapiya fits in with the story.
We're fortunate this month that we get to hear from all four crew members at the same time.