The team will be subjected to resource limitations, isolation, equipment failure, and significant workloads during their habitation.' The crew will face environmental stressors such as resource limitations, isolation, and equipment failure in order to be as close to the situation on Mars when humans arrive.

'During the simulation, crew members will carry out different types of mission activities, including simulated spacewalks, robotic operations, habitat maintenance, personal hygiene, exercise, and crop growth,' Nasa said in a statement. The 3D-printed habitat includes private crew quarters, a kitchen, and dedicated areas for medical, recreation, fitness, work, and crop growth activities, as well as a technical work area and two bathrooms. With these goals in mind, Perseverance will continue to work towards collecting a conglomerate sample from the upper fan, so back on Earth, scientists can apply the conglomerate test to this special core and better constrain Mars’ paleomagnetic past.The crew is scheduled to begin in June this year as the teams obtain the most accurate data during the analog mission. Returned samples will help test this hypothesis! Determining when this process occurred is an important goal for planetary scientists and astrobiologists seeking to understand Mars’ geologic past and changing habitability. Scientists believe that this may be why the Martian atmosphere is thinner today: absent a magnetic field to protect from radiation, solar wind can reach the surface and strip the atmosphere away to space. In the past, Mars had a molten core and magnetosphere, but at some point in history the core cooled and began to solidify, causing the magnetic field to shut off. A magnetosphere is important for habitability, because it provides a shield against radiation from the Sun and deep space and can help a planet retain its atmosphere. A planet’s magnetosphere, or global magnetic field, is the result of interactions between convection within a molten iron-rich core and the planet’s rotation on its axis. Why does this matter? The conglomerate test can help determine when the Martian magnetic field was active. The conglomerate test is used to determine whether a rock experienced a “remagnetization” event after it formed. Certain types of iron-bearing minerals display magnetic properties, and when a magnetic field is applied to these minerals, the direction of magnetization can shift, serving as a record of the event. Additionally, these types of rocks can help complete the “conglomerate test,” a paleomagnetic tool used by geochronologists to date magnetization events in a planet’s past. Minerals in each grain are evidence of geology and composition of source terrains, grain size and roundness bear witness to erosional processes that shaped and transported pebbles, and matrix makeup can provide information about the chemistry, pH, and redox state of fluids that infilled space between clasts after they were deposited. Conglomerates are important because they provide a window into the past, recording information about a variety of geologic events and environmental shifts. What’s the deal with conglomerates and why is the team so interested in collecting one? Conglomerates are a type of sedimentary rock made up of rounded pebble-sized grains greater than 2 mm across, cemented together in a matrix of finer-grained minerals, mud, or sand. After nearing Stone Man Pass, rover cameras indicated the rock is not a conglomerate, so instead, Perseverance drove to Emerald Lake, an outcrop a few tens of meters away and within the same layer as Onahu, to attempt sampling here. The team set sights on a neighboring outcrop called Stone Man Pass, about 40 meters away, to search for a less crumbly conglomerate that could stand up to the coring process. Two attempts were made to core at the Onahu outcrop, but the soft rock crumbled during each attempt. Sampling Martian rocks requires persistence! Right now, Perseverance is on the hunt for a conglomerate rock to sample for return to Earth – a task that is proving to be challenging.

Nasa mars rover updates