The Aquarius research facility, a unique underwater residential laboratory located off the coast of Florida, is the site of the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) program.
- NASA Home
- > Exploration
- > Human Research Program
- > Analogs
Connect
Why We Explore
Why Do We Explore?
From the time of our birth, humans have felt a primordial urge to explore -- to blaze new trails, map new lands, and answer profound questions about ourselves and our universe.
Research Information: Analogs
NASA’s Human Research Program scientists and engineers work to identify, understand, and lessen the risks that humans encounter in space. However, the process of carrying out these studies can be logistically challenging, since the amount of data available from space travel is limited.
In order to conduct the kind of studies that can help improve the safety and productivity of space travel, the HRP has established a number of experimental facilities known as “analogs” that mimic environmental conditions in space. These analogs allow HRP researchers and engineers to gain insight into the challenges that crewmembers face in the space environment and to develop and assess new technologies and protocols.
Analog Field Tests
NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO)
Haughton Mars Project
NASA’s Haughton Mars Project (HMP) is part of an international interdisciplinary field research facility located on the world’s largest uninhabited island, Devon Island.
Desert Research and Technology Studies (Desert RATS)
d="3" ?>NASA's Desert Research and Technology Studies (Desert RATS) are carried out at a series of experimental sites within a 75-mile radius of Flagstaff, with the area around Winslow, Arizona's Meteor ...
Bed Rest Studies
HRP researchers and engineers are studying bed rest as an experimental analog for space flight because extended exposure to a head-down tilt position can duplicate many of the effects of a ...
Human-Related Altitude Chamber Complex
Future studies at the Altitude Chamber Complex will continue to focus on life support systems, long-duration spaceflight, and the physiological and psychological impacts of confinement.
Antarctica
As NASA scientists and engineers begin to develop the equipment and protocols necessary to ensure that crewmembers remain safe, healthy, and productive on long-duration missions to the Moon and Mars, ...