NASA has decided. These four will go to Mars. As if

HERA is a simulated mission conducted in a habitat at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Its aim is to check how crew members adapt to isolation and imprisonment in a small space. The experience gained and observations of this process are necessary before sending people on long-term and long-term space missions to the Moon or Mars.

Fantastic Four

The second team that will take part in the HERA experiment includes a total of four people – three of them come from the USA and one from the United Arab Emirates. Their mission will begin on May 10 and will last 45 days. During this time, they will live and work like real astronauts. Their task plan includes, among others, scientific research and a simulation of a walk on the surface of the Red Planet using virtual reality technology. The crew will experience a delay in communication with the flight control center, just as it will actually happen in a real Mars mission.

According to the Naukawpolsce.pl portal, the first member of the new crew – Jason Lee – is a professor at the School of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Manufacturing Engineering run by the University of Connecticut; Stephanie Navarro is a space operations specialist with the U.S. Air Force Reserve; Shareef Al Romaithi is a pilot with 16 years of experience in the aviation industry; Piyumi Wijesekara is a postdoctoral fellow at the Radiation Biophysics Laboratory at NASA Ames Research Center.

HERA crew members are volunteers. Most of them are Americans, but this time there is also one person from outside the US: Shareef Al Romaithi from the United Arab Emirates. This is part of the country's larger plans for space. These include participation in the future colonization of Mars. The United Arab Emirates will also deliver an airlock module to the Gateway orbital station.

Two more missions are planned in the future as part of the HERA experiment. The last team will finish its work on December 20 this year.