On Friday, a new HERA crew began a 45-day simulated mission to Mars inside NASA’s ground-based habitat. The four-person crew is designated as Campaign 7, Mission 1, and will live together for their analog mission as part of the agency’s Human Research Program, HRP.
NASA selected and trained the four-person crew to participate in the analog mission from a pool of volunteer applicants. Abhishek Bhagat is a research electrical engineer with the U.S. Army R&D Center and enjoys hiking and climbing mountains. Carli Domenico is a neuroscientist and director of academic and professional programming. She previously interned at NASA JSC. Kamak Ebadi is a robotics tech at NASA JPL working to support NASA’s Artemis and Perseverance missions. Susan Hilbig is a physician assistant with experience working in simulated environments.
While in the HERA environment, the crew will work together to complete 18 human health experiments that will inform long-duration missions in space. A large part of the experiment of analog missions is to study how the crew adapts to confinement to a craft and how the human body responds to the work conditions on space missions.
Much of the training and evaluations that the HERA crew undergo are similar to real astronaut training. In addition, several experiments and daily activities performed during the mission are similar to work done by astronauts living in space.
The HERA crew is expected to remain in the habitat for the entire duration of their mission. The Campaign 7, Mission 1 crew is expected to exit HERA on March 11th, 2024.
