NASA announces crew for 45-day Mars simulation

Driving the news: NASA announced the four crew members Friday. They are:

• Kristen Magas, an engineer and vocational high school educator
• Anderson Wilder, a psychology doctoral student who focuses on team resiliency and human-machine interactions
• Obaid Alsuwaidi, a captain engineer with the United Arab Emirates' Ministry of Defense
• Tiffany Snyder, a NASA cybersecurity supervisor who has two pups named Artemis and Apollo

Two alternates, consultant Jordan Hundley and applied physics researcher Robert Wilson, are on standby.

The mission: The crew will enter NASA's Human Exploration Research Analog facility on Nov. 1.

• They'll perform experiments as if they were on the Martian surface, such as growing vegetables, cultivating shrimp and taking virtual spacewalks.
• Experiment engineers will also simulate communication lapses with mission control, which are anticipated for real-life astronauts as they travel to Mars.

What's next: NASA is preparing to send astronauts to Mars as early as the 2030s.

• The agency is currently focusing on its Artemis missions to the Moon, with hopes of landing on the lunar surface later this decade.