Spending a year off line on Mars Dune Alpha

An experiment lasting 378 days has recently concluded. The overarching goal of the experiment, called CHAPEA (Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog) Mission 1, is to better understand the impacts of isolation on a crew's performance and health in space. It was carried out in anticipation of a round-trip to Mars which could easily take more than two years, factoring in the transit time of six-to-nine months and the time NASA hopes to spend on the planet. Luke O’Neill, Professor of Biochemistry at the school of Immunology, Trinity College explained how the experiment went and the findings.