Aspiring Martians

This week on Inside the Habitat, Aspiring Martians takes a closer look at SOLIS100, a European Space Agency isolation study conducted by the German Aerospace Center at its :envihab aerospace medicine research facility in Cologne.
SOLIS100, short for Study of Long-term Isolation, placed six carefully selected participants from six European countries into a closed, controlled environment for 100 days. The goal was not to recreate one specific Mars mission, but to better understand how prolonged isolation, confinement, limited resources and restricted social contact affect human health, behavior, performance and team dynamics during future deep-space missions.
The study builds directly on SOLIS8, an eight-day pilot conducted in 2025 that tested the facility, equipment, procedures and protocols that would later be used for the full 100-day campaign.
During SOLIS100, the crew followed tightly controlled schedules, conducted scientific research, exercised daily, maintained their living environment and worked with limited resources while researchers gathered data on areas including sleep, cognition, mood, physiology, microbiology and crew cohesion.
Joining the episode is Dr. Angelique Van Ombergen, ESA’s Chief Exploration Scientist. With a background in medical sciences and neuroscience, Angelique previously studied how astronauts’ brains adapt to spaceflight and now oversees scientific activities supporting human and robotic exploration from low Earth orbit to the Moon and eventually Mars.
Together, we explore why 100 days is scientifically useful, how isolation studies complement other spaceflight analogs, what ESA hopes to learn from crew dynamics and how this research may help shape the way future astronauts are selected, trained and supported.
Because the spacecraft may be complicated.
The humans inside it may be even more so.
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Check out our Inside the Habitat episode from last month which was recorded in person at NASA Johnson Space Center and covers CHAPEA, HERA, and the brand new upcoming combined mission MMEA: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/inside-the-habitat-s-nasa-analogs/id1777937758?i=1000779833363
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A huge thank you to Angelique for taking the time to join me today and for sharing her knowledge, perspective, and insight into what it actually takes to prepare humans for life beyond Earth. And of course, thank you to Nick Thorburn for the stellar theme music, Ceci Giglio for the incredible graphics, Jero Squartini for the amazing animations, to RDan, Leila, Inka, and Carl for admining the Facebook group, and to my family for supporting this project, even when I start calculating how many days we might someday be able to knock off the family road trip to Mars.

Who owns your house on Mars?
What happens if somebody steals your solar panels?
Which laws apply if astronauts from several different countries are living together? And what happens when the first child is actually born there?
This month on our special Everyday Mars episode, space lawyer Michelle Hanlon joins Aspiring Martians to explore one of the strangest and most important questions surrounding humanity's future beyond Earth: how will law actually work on Mars?
Michelle is Executive Director of the Center for Air and Space Law at the University of Mississippi, co-founder and president of For All Moonkind, founder of the Institute on Space Law and Ethics, and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Space Law. She has addressed the United Nations, testified before Congress, and become known throughout the space community as the “Godmother of Space Law.”
Together, we begin with the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, the surprisingly short international agreement that still provides the foundation for what nations can and cannot do beyond Earth.
But the really interesting questions begin where the treaty becomes less clear.
Can an individual own property on Mars even if a nation cannot claim Martian territory? Can settlers exclude other people from their habitats? Who prosecutes theft? Which country is responsible when someone breaks the law? How do you regulate oxygen, water, privacy, safety, and working conditions when violating a rule could literally kill your neighbors?
Michelle also explains why Martian law may gradually develop from the bottom up. The earliest settlers will likely remain tethered to Earth and terrestrial legal systems, but their daily experiences could eventually create customs, norms, expectations, and ultimately laws unique to life on another planet.
We also discuss children born on Mars, human rights in space, SpaceX's declaration that Mars should be a “free planet,” whether the first Martian settlements will need constitutions, and Michelle's hope that space exploration could ultimately help humanity move beyond some of the national divisions that define life on Earth.
Because reaching Mars is only the beginning.
Once we arrive, we still have to figure out how to live together.
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All about Michelle: https://olemiss.edu/profiles/mlhanlon.php
For All Moonkind: https://www.forallmoonkind.org/
"Is the Speed of Law Faster than the Speed of Light: Considerations of the Impact of Special Relativity on the Operation of Law in the Context of Deep Space Missions": https://egrove.olemiss.edu/j_space_l/vol47/iss2/4/
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A huge thank you to Michelle for taking the time to join me today and for sharing her incredible journey, curiosity, and perspective. And of course, thank you to Nick Thorburn for the stellar theme music, Ceci Giglio for the incredible graphics, Jero Squartini for the amazing animations, to RDan, Leila, Inka, and Carl for admining the Facebook group, and to my family for supporting this project, even when I start wondering whether someday we’re going to need to remember to request our absentee ballots before leaving for Mars.

What kind of person do we actually need to send to Mars?
Someone technically brilliant, certainly. But future Martian crews will also need people capable of communicating through frustration, relinquishing control when someone else knows better, remaining calm during emergencies, living without privacy, managing relationships across millions of miles, and somehow still volunteering to clean the toilet.
This week, Joe speaks with Dr. Anika Mehlis, a German microbiologist, environmental engineer, public-health scientist, systemic counselor, psychotherapist, author, lecturer, and analog astronaut with the Austrian Space Forum.
Anika describes her career as a mosaic, with each seemingly unrelated chapter adding another piece. Her work has taken her from microbiology and environmental engineering into public health, infectious-disease prevention, organizational health literacy, counseling, psychology, and ultimately analog spaceflight. And rather beautifully, a counselor once jokingly suggested that the only career capable of accommodating all of Anika’s contradictory interests might be becoming an astronaut.
Years later, that joke became remarkably accurate.
Anika was selected for the Austrian Space Forum’s analog astronaut program and later participated in AMADEE-20 in Israel’s Negev Desert before commanding AMADEE-24 in Armenia, where unexpected conditions forced her to confront what leadership actually looks like when plans fail and decisions suddenly matter. 
In this conversation, we explore imposter syndrome, quitting secure jobs without knowing what comes next, why parenting may secretly be excellent astronaut training, how analog crews are psychologically tested, and what Anika discovered about herself when her Mars habitat had to be evacuated.
We also dive deep into the psychology of future Mars expeditions: what communication delays could do to the relationship between astronauts and Mission Control, how quickly an “us versus them” mentality can develop, why being isolated from Earth is very different from actually being alone, and what happens when several highly capable humans are forced to occupy the same confined environment for years.
Perhaps most fascinatingly, Anika asks a question that often gets ignored when imagining the first Mars missions: what happens after they come home?
How does someone return to ordinary life after experiencing something no one else on Earth can fully understand? How do astronauts reconnect with families and communities that continued changing while they were gone? And how do we prepare people not merely to survive Mars, but to psychologically survive returning from it?
It’s a conversation about space exploration, but underneath it all it’s really about systems, relationships, identity, resilience, and what humans need from one another when everything familiar falls away.
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Learn more about Anika! https://anika-mehlis-beratung.com/en/start-english/
Her book "Wo die Zukunft der Raumfahrt beginnt": https://shop.autorenwelt.de/products/wo-die-zukunft-der-raumfahrt-beginnt-von-anika-mehlis
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A huge thank you to Anika for taking the time to join me today and for sharing her incredible journey, curiosity, and perspective. And of course, thank you to Nick Thorburn for the stellar theme music, Ceci Giglio for the incredible graphics, Jero Squartini for the amazing animations, to RDan, Leila, Inka, and Carl for admining the Facebook group, and to my family for supporting this project—even when I start explaining why Mars only looks like it’s going backward.

What can Antarctica teach us about Mars?
This week on Aspiring Martians, I sit down with biologist, data scientist, educator, and Mars analog astronaut Pacifica Sommers to explore how some of Earth’s most extreme environments are shaping the future of human space exploration.
Pacifica’s career has taken her from the blistering deserts of Arizona to the frozen Dry Valleys of Antarctica, studying everything from invasive grasses and microbes to the invisible ecosystems that survive beneath glaciers. Today she works in metagenomics at Bayer Crop Sciences while continuing her research with the University of Colorado Boulder, all driven by a fascination with how life adapts under extraordinary conditions.
Recently, she added another environment to that list: Mars.
Pacifica shares what it was like participating in a Mars Desert Research Station analog mission, where researchers studied how crews make decisions under pressure while navigating simulated EVAs, conflicting information, and the psychological demands of isolation. We discuss what these missions reveal about future human expeditions to Mars and why analog astronauts may play an important role in preparing us for becoming a multiplanetary species.
We also dive into why humans still matter in exploration even as robots become increasingly capable, how growing food for Mars could transform agriculture here on Earth, what NASA looks for in astronaut candidates, and why inspiring the next generation of explorers may ultimately be just as important as sending the first people to Mars.

University of Arizona Sky School: https://skyschool.arizona.edu/
Girls* on Rock: https://www.inspiringgirls.org/gor
Martian Greenhouse: https://sites.google.com/view/martiangreenhouse/home

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A huge thank you to Pacifica for taking the time to join metoday and for sharing her incredible curiosity, insights, and passion for exploration. And of course, thank you to Nick Thorburn for the stellar theme music, Ceci Giglio for the incredible graphics, Jero Squartini for the amazinganimations, to RDan, Leila, Inka, and Carl for admining the Facebook group, and to my family for supporting this project—even when our conversations somehow end up talking about avalanches on another planet.

In this month’s Inside the Habitat, I traveled to NASA’s Johnson Space Center to explore the agency’s human exploration analogs. From the year-long Mars missions of CHAPEA, to the behavioral research of HERA, and beyond to a look toward the future with the upcoming Moon and Mars Exploration Analog (MMEA).
First, I sit down with Dr. Grace Douglas, Principal Investigator for CHAPEA and NASA’s lead scientist for Advanced Food Technology. We discuss why NASA built Mars Dune Alpha, its remarkable 3D-printed Mars habitat, and how year-long missions inside are helping scientists study everything from food and exercise to crew health, performance, and daily life.
Then, I speak with Dr. Brandon Vessey about one of the most fascinating (and often overlooked) aspects of space exploration: people. We explore how NASA uses the Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA) to study teamwork, leadership, communication, isolation, and psychological resilience, and why understanding human behavior may ultimately be just as important as building better spacecraft.
Finally, Grace and Brandon take us inside what comes next: the Moon and Mars Exploration Analog (MMEA), a new program bringing together elements of CHAPEA and HERA to help NASA prepare for future missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
From 3D-printed habitats and future food systems to isolation, team dynamics, communication delays, and life in confinement, this episode explores the surprisingly human challenges of preparing for deep space—and the places here on Earth where NASA is already putting them to the test.
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Apply now for MMEA! https://analogstudies.jsc.nasa.gov/
Learn more about CHAPEA: https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/chapea/
And HERA: https://www.nasa.gov/mission/hera/

A huge thank you to Dr. Grace Douglas and Brandon for takingtime out of their incredibly busy days to sit down with me for these conversations. I’d also like to give a very special thank you to Kelsey for coordinating all of the interviews, the logistics of bringing me onsite to NASA’s Johnson Space Center, and for being such an incredible host throughoutthe visit. And to everyone at NASA who helped make this experience possible—thank you for opening your doors and giving us a glimpse into the incredible work being done to prepare humanity for life beyond Earth. And of course, thank you to Nick Thorburn for the stellar theme music, Ceci Giglio for the incredible graphics, Jero Squartini for the amazing animations, to RDan, Leila, Inka, and Carl for admining the Facebook group, and to my family for supporting this project—even when my “office” occasionally becomes MissionControl.