In just over a month, Air Force Maj. Ross Elder will take part in a special NASA mission, during which he and three other crew members will spend more than a year living and working in an environment meant to simulate a future habitat on the surface of Mars.

Currently an Air Force test pilot, Elder will lead the mission, which will be held in a 1,700-square-foot 3D-printed structure at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. The mission will run from Oct. 19, 2025 to Oct. 31, 2026. Crew members will conduct simulated space walks and other tasks.

“I’m spending a lot of time to kind of conceptualize and think about how those walls are going to be the only thing that I’m looking at, and then the crew — just the four of us — are the only people that I’m going to see,” Elder told Task & Purpose

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