NASA looking for brave applicants to ‘spend a year living on Mars’ in rare job advert | World | News
The award for best job advert might go to NASA this year after the intrepid space agency posted it was looking for applicants to spend “a year on Mars”.
The US cosmic exploration body is launching a bid to find a crew for its next CHAPEA mission, which stands for Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analogs, testing how humans will cope living in isolated pods on the Red Planet.
Previously a four-person crew successfully spent a ‘year on Mars’ from 2022 to 2023, and this will be the second of three “planned ground missions” designed to test how people will react to surviving the inhospitable Martian environment.
Four lucky volunteers will be chosen from possibly thousands of applicants, with the crew entering the purpose-built 1,700-square-foot Mars Dune Alpha pod at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, in spring next year.
NASA said in a statement: “The habitat, called the Mars Dune Alpha, simulates the challenges of a mission on Mars, including resource limitations, equipment failures, communication delays, and other environmental stressors.
“Crew tasks include simulated spacewalks, robotic operations, habitat maintenance, exercise, and crop growth.”
NASA added applicants should be healthy non smokers aged 30-55 years old and must be “proficient in English for effective communication between crewmates and mission control”.
It continued: “Applicants should have a strong desire for unique, rewarding adventures and interest in contributing to NASA’s work to prepare for the first human journey to Mars.”
Sadly, for people in the UK dreaming of space travel the job is only open to US citizens, or permanent residents.
NASA has previously said it believes advancing technologies could see a human mission to Mars possible in the 2030s.
It said: “Mars remains our horizon goal for human exploration because it is one of the only other places we know where life may have existed in the solar system. What we learn about the Red Planet will tell us more about our Earth’s past and future, and may help answer whether life exists beyond our home planet.
“Like the Moon, Mars is a rich destination for scientific discovery and a driver of technologies that will enable humans to travel and explore far from Earth.”
The deadline for applicants is Tuesday, April 2 and to apply visit this link.