Nine European Students Complete Six-Day Simulated Mars Mission in Portugal

by Erica Marchand
Paris, France (SPX) Apr 23, 2026
Nine high school students from Austria, Greece, and Portugal have emerged from a specially designed habitat near Monsaraz, Portugal, marking the successful completion of EXPLORE-2, a six-day simulated Mars mission that placed young Europeans in the roles of analog astronauts.

The students lived, worked, and explored as if they were on Mars, operating rovers, conducting scientific experiments, and solving real challenges without any outside assistance. The mission ran from 13-19 April 2026 at OLA - Observatorio do Lago Alqueva in Portugal's Alentejo region, an area whose barren, reddish landscape resembles the Red Planet.

Jean-Claude Worms, Executive Director of the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR), said: "Another week of analog EXPLORERS to Mars has just concluded beautifully. It was awesome to see what highly motivated high school students can do when confronted with the challenges of a simulated space mission. They came out of the facility transformed, instantly becoming dedicated ambassadors for the promotion of STEM education."

"We're not just supporting students to learn about space - we're showing them what it's like to live it," said Rosa Doran, President of NUCLIO and Chair of the COSPAR Panel on Education. "This mission represents everything we envisioned when we created EXPLORE: young people gaining authentic experience in exploration, self-motivation, self-confidence, teamwork, and scientific thinking."

EXPLORE-2 builds on its predecessor EXPLORE-1, which took place in June 2025, but represents a significant leap forward in both educational ambition and operational realism. Participants actively designed their own mission plans, scheduling experiments, integrating scientific investigations, and making operational decisions using procedures adapted from AMADEE, the Austrian Space Forum's professional flagship research program. Students took on defined crew roles, working collaboratively to manage the daily challenges of isolated mission operations.

"We gave these students real responsibility," explained Gernot Gromer, Director of the Austrian Space Forum (OeWF) and project lead. "They weren't just following a script - they were making decisions, managing resources, and working as an actual crew. It is a shining example of European cooperation with the very generation that will one day enable our society's most ambitious journey yet: a crewed mission to the Red Planet."

One highlight was the EXPLORE Experiment Design Challenge, a competition inviting students across Europe to propose scientific investigations for the mission. The winning entry came from the Antalya Science and Art Center in Turkey: an experiment testing astronaut reflexes before, during, and after wearing Delta suits - the specialized attire students wore each time they left the habitat to collect rock samples or conduct field experiments.

Before astronauts travel to Mars or the Moon, they train on Earth in environments that simulate the harsh realities of space. These analog missions test equipment, procedures, and the psychological effects of isolation on crews. The terrain near Monsaraz provides an ideal Mars-like backdrop for such training. Students wore spacesuit simulators during their spacewalks, experiencing first-hand the constraints and protocols that real astronauts follow.

All students taking part in EXPLORE-2 were chosen by their classmates and Space Coach teachers. The nine participants had never met each other before the mission began. In one week they had to build trust, establish team spirit, and learn to cooperate under pressure - adapting each day's mission plan when difficulties or unexpected changes arose.

The EXPLORE program - Expeditionary Program for Learning OppoRtunities in analog space Exploration - is an EU co-funded Erasmus+ initiative bringing the reality of space exploration into schools. The project is led by the Austrian Space Forum in partnership with NUCLIO (Portugal), Ellinogermaniki Agogi (Greece), COSPAR, and Observatorio do Lago Alqueva (Portugal). Any school in Europe can participate through the program's virtual toolkit.