Earthbound Astronauts Get Some Attention

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): CHAPEA Mission 2 crew members (from left to right) Ross Elder, Ellen Ellis, Matthew Montgomery, and James Spicer after entering the habitat in October 2025. (NASA)

You are probably familiar with the names Wiseman, Glover, Koch, and Hansen from the Artemis II mission, but how about the names Elder, Ellis, Montgomery, and Spicer. It is not a law firm, but rather the four crew members who just completed 378 days as part of NASA’s simulated Mars mission.

Their full names and titles are:

  • Ross Elder, mission commander;
  • Ellen Ellis, medical officer;
  • Matthew Montgomery, science officer; and
  • James Spicer, flight engineer.

The simulated Mars mission, called the Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA), took place at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. The four-member crew lived in a 1,700 square foot habitat for more than a year conducting scientific research and operational tasks. It is the second such mission to test out the idea of humans living in isolation on the Moon and Mars.

Michael Stenger, chief scientist for NASA’s Human Research Program, had this to say about the role of the latest CHAPEA mission:

This mission has been incredibly valuable in starting to teach us how to understand requirements for year-long missions, including medical and psychological care, via communication delays…When combining this Mars-realistic mission analog with a suite of physiological, psychological, and performance measures in a rigorously controlled environment, we’ll be able to translate the knowledge from these experiences to Moon Base and beyond.

While you might expect Mr. Musk to be financing such work given all of his talk about going to Mars (rather than blowing hundreds of millions of dollars on political campaigns), the funding and hard work is being done by NASA alone.

Congrats to the four crew members for their hard work!

Image (Credit): The CHAPEA 1,700-square-foot habitat at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX. (NASA)

Space Stories: Martian Meteorite from Africa, More Milky Way Satellites, and China’s Lunar Landing Plans

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): A slice of the Martian meteorite Teghaza 001. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Here are some recent space-related stories of interest.

—Reuters: “Martian Meteorite Found in the Sahara is 4.1 Billion Years Old“

A meteorite found in 2022 in the Sahara in Mali formed in the Martian crust at least 4.1 billion years ago, according to scientists, making the ​reddish igneous rock perhaps the oldest of the 435 meteorites from Mars known on Earth. The researchers said the composition of the meteorite, called Teghaza 001, is providing insight ‌into the environment early in the history of Earth’s planetary neighbor, with fresh evidence of liquid water on the surface that bolsters the notion that primordial Mars may have been conducive to microbial life.

—Universe Today: “The Vera Rubin Has Found Two More of the Milky Way’s Dim Satellites“

Massive galaxies like the Milky Way have a retinue of smaller, dim satellites on their outskirts. They’re hard to detect, and while astronomers have found about 65 of the Milky Way’s dwarf satellite galaxies, and about 40 globular clusters in its halo, they suspect there are many dwarf satellites and globular clusters yet to be found. Now the Vera Rubin Observatory has found two more. The Milky Way’s satellites are either small dim galaxies or globular clusters, and both are part of the assembly history of the Milky Way through mergers. These two detections by the Rubin, found in its Early Data Preview 2 (EDP2) released in July 2026, are almost certainly the beginning of many more discoveries of Milky Way satellites by the powerful observatory. One is a most likely a dim dwarf galaxy named Aquarius IV, and one is a globular cluster named Rubin-GC1.

—South China Morning Post: “China Aims for Manned Moon Landing Before 2030, With Two Taikonauts Set to Touch Down on Lunar Surface“

China plans to land Chinese astronauts on the Moon before 2030, with a crew of three, two of whom are expected to set foot on the lunar surface, the Global Times learned from the 7th Human Space Symposium, held in Beijing on Saturday. The country’s first manned lunar mission will employ a lunar-orbit rendezvous and docking profile, Wang Xiang, deputy chief designer of China’s manned space program and chief designer of the lunar exploration program, said at the symposium. The crew for China’s first crewed lunar exploration mission is planned to consist of three taikonauts, two of whom will land on the lunar surface, Wang added.

Note: Here is the podcast version of this post.

Your Name Can Travel to Titan

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: NASA

You have until January 15, 2027 to share your name with NASA so it can be placed on the Dragonfly rotorcraft being sent to Saturn’s moon Titan in 2028. More than 48,000 individuals have already added their name to the mission, but there is plenty of room for more names.

The Dragonfly rotocraft is expected to arrive at Titan in 2034. The mission will last more than three years and entail many miles of travel across the moon’s surface to collect and study samples. NASA hopes to learn more about Titan, including whether the planet has any evidence of water-based or hydrocarbon-based life.

Nicky Fox, NASA’s associate administrator in its Science Mission Directorate, stated:

By flying the first-ever rotorcraft science mission, NASA will explore Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, as we search for signs of habitability on a distant world that is most similar to our own. We are excited to bring humanity along for the journey of a lifetime, and we invite everyone to send their names on this small but mighty rotorcraft that will unlock the secrets of the universe in what is widely considered one of the most exciting space missions of our lifetime.

Go to this NASA site now to add your name.