HOUSTON, USA, Oct. 27, 2026 - The second crew of NASA's CHAPEA Mars simulation will leave the habitat at NASA's Johnson Space Center on 31 October,^[1] ending more than a year of isolation that began on 19 October 2025.^[2] The crew are Ross Elder, Ellen Ellis, Matthew Montgomery and James Spicer.^[3] Inside the 1,700-square-foot habitat built by ICON,^[4] the crew has carried out simulated Mars tasks.^[5] NASA will run a two-week evaluation after they come out,^[6] and will use the data to reduce risks for Artemis lunar missions and future deep-space flights.^[7] The first CHAPEA mission ended in July 2024 after 378 days,^[8] and the programme, announced in 2021, plans three missions in all.^[9] Impact Insight. Long missions far from Earth test people as much as machines: crews must cope with isolation, delayed communication and limited supplies. The link to planetary defense is indirect: the same experience in keeping crews healthy and effective over long stays would support any future human mission to study or deflect an asteroid.