NASA wants volunteers for its second year-long simulated Mars mission, the Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA 2). For the mission's duration, starting spring 2025, the four selected crew members will live in a 1,700-square-foot 3D-printed habitat in Houston. It's paid, but we don't know how much. At least living costs will be nil. The Mars Dune Alpha habitat at NASA's Johnson Space Center simulates life for future explorers on the red planet, where the environment is harsh and resources limited.

Astronauts are spending a month in isolation on a simulated'red planet' in the desolate Dhofar desert in Oman to help prepare humanity for a future mission to Mars. Using a drone, robotic rovers and an inflatable greenhouse, the astronauts will carry out 19 experiments on this baron area, picked for its resemblance to Mars. Seen from space, the Dhofar Desert is a flat, brown expanse and few animals or plants survive its temperatures that can top 125 degrees Fahrenheit, or 51 degrees Celsius. On the eastern edge of a seemingly endless dune is the Oman Mars Base is a giant 2.4-ton inflated habitat surrounded by shipping containers turned into labs and crew quarters. More than 200 scientists from 25 nations have chosen it as their location to field-test technology for a manned mission to the red planet which Nasa hopes to achieve by the 2030s.