Going through some of my old research on space exploration –because why shouldn’t one write science fiction of space explorers knowing some related science fact?– I came across this article by Denise Chow for Space.com back from 2011. It’s all about how people are practicing how to explore space while still here on Earth. And since it’s from 2011, I wondered how some of these projects turned out in early 2026, 15 years later.
The Mars 500 Mission
Well, for a start, the mission ended in 2011, after cycling through three different crews in increasing durations of isolation since 2007. Denise Chow actually covered it for Space.com back then, but there’s good ol’ Wikipedia, the European Space Agency’s overview, plus some scientific papers. “Main findings of psychophysiological studies in the Mars 500 experiment” and “During the Long Way to Mars: Effects of 520 Days of Confinement (Mars500) on the Assessment of Affective Stimuli and Stage Alteration in Mood and Plasma Hormone Levels” if you really want to get wonky about it.
Overall, my impression from the reading is that this was a very useful experiment — and any mission to Mars or points farther will be taking its data into account.
NEEMO
Aka “NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations,” these missions have been using an underwater research facility as an analog for working in a non-Earth extreme environment. While you can find a NASA web page about NEEMO, there isn’t information about current missions and the Wikipedia page leads one to believe the last one was in 2019.
Nevertheless, the Aquarius Reef Base, where NEEMO missions were held, is still around and being run by Florida International University.
RATS
Lending credence to the hypothesis that NASA staff were into G.I. Joe-style acronyms, or possibly The Man from U.N.C.L.E, RATS stands for Research and Technology Studies… and that’s Desert Rats to you and me. Like NEEMO, it’s all about providing an analog for exploring non-Earth environments. In this case, it looks to be more about rocky environments.
Per both the NASA page and the Wikipedia page, it doesn’t look like anything has happened with this since 2012.
CAVES
Okay, maybe it’s not just NASA, CAVES, which stands for “Cooperative Adventure for Valuing and Exercising human behaviour and performance Skills.” It’s a three-week course for astronauts run by the European Space Agency. The first course appears to have been in 2011 (which Denise Chow also wrote about) and you can learn more about it on the ESA Site. But, per the Wikipedia page, they are continuing to run the courses, the latest one being just last year.
Lunar Habitat in Antarctica
It’s not just the 2007 article cited, the short version is that we’ve been thinking about inflatable space habitats for a while and people are continuing to explore the idea (as seen in these videos from 2022 and 2024).
Mars Desert Research Station
The Mars Society operates two research stations, this being one of them. They’ve been sending crews to the station since 2001, but it appears the last one finished up in summer 2024. There’s also a capital campaign for the station. Still, I have to admit, applying to be a crew member is tempting (note: it does have a cost, so you pay to be guinea pig/explorer for science!)
The Pavilion Lake Research Project
By both the Wikipedia entry and NASA page, everything with this appears to have been completed by 2014.
Haughton impact crater
Like the Mars Desert Research Station above, this facility is also run by the Mars Society. Being in the Arctic, it appears more “full-on” shall we say. Not as many missions have happened here, but the last one wrapped up just last July.
Lunar Rover Tests in Hawaii
A specific set of tests tied to the now-defunct Constellation program, this and related research will almost certainly factor into future moon-related missions, possibly Artemis.
Naturally, there’s other spaaace news that wasn’t covered by that 15-year old article, but it was interesting to see how things have progressed.