NASA looking for people to spend a year pretending they live on Mars
NASA is looking for applicants to spend a year pretending they are isolated on Mars.
The space agency wants people to apply so that it can prepare for eventually sending astronauts to the red planet.
Applications opened on Friday for four people to live for a year in Mars Dune Alpha.
An image taken by China’s Zhurong rover
The 1,700-square-foot Martian habitat, created by a 3D-printer, is based inside a building at Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas.
There will be no windows, and the applicants will consume ready-to-eat space food.
The paid volunteers work a simulated Martian exploration mission which includes spacewalks, limited communications back home, restricted food and resources and equipment failures.
Three of these experiments are being planned by NASA, with the first one starting in the autumn in 2022.
Lead scientist Grace Douglas said: “We want to understand how humans perform in them. We are looking at Mars realistic situations.”
Applicants have to hold a master’s degree in science, engineering or maths, or have pilot experience.
The agency also says only American citizens or permanent US residents are eligible for the experiment, which echoes 2015 film The Martian, starring Matt Damon.
They have to be aged between 30 and 55 and in good physical health, with no dietary issues and not prone to motion sickness.
Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield says it shows NASA is looking for people who are close to astronauts, which would make it a better experiment if the participants are more similar to the people who will really go to the planet.
He said previous Russian efforts at a pretend mission called Mars 500 did not end well, partly because the people were too much like everyday people.
Mr Hadfield spent five months in orbit in 2013 at the International Space Station, where he played guitar and sang a cover video of David Bowie’s hit Space Oddity.
He said: “Just think how much you’re going to be able to catch up on Netflix. If they have a musical instrument there, you could go into there knowing nothing and come out a concert musician, if you want.”
The experience could involve “incredible freedom” in a “year away from the demands of your normal life”, he added.
Meanwhile, NASA’s newest Mars rover, called Perseverance, failed in its first attempt to pick up a rock sample to eventually be brought back to Earth.
The machine drilled into the floor of the planet’s Jezero Crater to extract a finger-sized sample from slabs of flat rocks.
Although the drill seemed to work as intended, no rock appeared to have ended up in the sample tube.
Elon Musk says he has created a new political party – the America Party –
after asking his followers if he should do so in an online poll.
It follows his public falling out with Republican President Donald Trump.
On Friday, the billionaire had asked his followers on X whether a new US political party should be created.
On Saturday evening he wrote on the same platform: “By a factor of 2 to 1, you want a new political party and you shall have it!
“When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste & graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy.
“Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom.”
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Trump threatens to ‘put DOGE’ on Musk
The world’s richest man made the announcement just one day after President Trump signed a tax-cut and spending bill into law on Friday, which Musk had fiercely opposed.
Musk had previously said we would form and fund a new political party to unseat lawmakers who supported the bill.
From bromance to bust-up
The Tesla boss backed Trump’s election campaign with more than a quarter of a billion dollars, later rewarded with a high profile role running the newly created department of government efficiency (DOGE).
But observers of the two men, both with huge wealth and reputations, wondered how long the bromance would last.
Donald Trump gave Musk a warm send-off in the Oval Office in May. Pic: Reuters
In May Musk left the role, still on good terms with Trump but criticising key parts of his legislative agenda.
After that, the attacks ramped up, with Musk slamming the sweeping tax and spending bill as a “disgusting abomination” and Trump hitting back in a barbed tit-for-tat.
Trump earlier this week threatened to cut off the billion-dollar federal subsidies that flow to Musk’s companies, and said he would even consider deporting him.
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