# Six volunteers entered a sealed habitat for 100 days so Europe could study how isolation may affect the minds and teamwork of future Moon and Mars crews

> Six volunteers have been living behind a sealed door in Cologne, Germany, since April 23, 2026 and the 100-day isolation phase is now nearing its scheduled August 7 end as researchers study a problem that future astronauts cannot avoid: how people hold...

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Byline: ARGO.net Editorial Team
Published: 2026-08-01T23:12:55+00:00
Categories: News, Space

![The six SOLIS100 isolation study participants](https://www.argo.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Six_volunteers_entered_a_sealed_habitat_in_Cologne_for_100_days_while_ESA_and_DLR_study_how_iso.jpg)

Six volunteers have been living behind a sealed door in Cologne, Germany, since April 23, 2026 and the 100-day isolation phase is now nearing its scheduled August 7 end as researchers study a problem that future astronauts cannot avoid: how people hold up when the crew is small, privacy is scarce and help from Earth is far away. The mission is called **SOLIS100** and it is built to mimic some of the hardest parts of long-distance space travel without ever leaving the ground.

According to an [ESA announcement](https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/SOLIS100_isolation_study_begins_in_Germany), the study is led by the **European Space Agency** and carried out by the **German Aerospace Center**, better known as DLR. The isolation phase began on April 23, 2026, when the six-person crew stepped into the habitat and started following a schedule designed to resemble a real exploration mission beyond low Earth orbit.

Researchers are using the campaign to learn how confinement changes mood, thinking, sleep, stress control and team behavior over time. They also want to see how people adapt when resources are limited and outside support cannot respond right away, a major concern for crews that may one day travel to the Moon, stay at a lunar base or spend months on the way to Mars. The mission is part of a larger effort to replace guesswork with measured evidence before crews are asked to live that way for real.

## What SOLIS100 is designed to measure

**Angelique Van Ombergen**, ESA's chief exploration scientist, described SOLIS100 as a 100-day human isolation experiment focused on the psychological, behavioral, cognitive and physiological strain that can build during long-duration missions. In simple terms, the study asks how healthy people think, work and cooperate when they share a closed habitat for months under mission-like rules.

The official [DLR project page](https://www.dlr.de/en/research-and-transfer/projects-and-missions/solis100-isolation-study) says the study examines the effects of isolation, confinement and limited resources on human health, performance and well-being. Researchers expect the results to sharpen medical risk models, improve crew support plans and help mission planners understand why some people adapt faster than others in extreme environments.

SOLIS100 also gives scientists a chance to watch several risk areas at once. ESA says the team is interested in mental health, stress regulation, sleep, cognitive performance, team cohesion and changes in the crew and habitat microbiome. Deep-space missions place social pressure, operational pressure and biological pressure inside the same small living area, so the study tracks more than one system at a time.

ESA also says the crew will carry out scientific experiments and technology demonstrations during the mission, including work from the United Arab Emirates' national space center, MBRSC. That detail shows why analogue missions are useful: they let researchers watch human performance while the crew is busy with real tasks, instead of studying isolation as if it were separate from the work demands of an exploration mission.

## Why distance from Earth changes the risk

A crew on the Moon is already operating with less direct support than astronauts in low Earth orbit and a Mars crew would face much longer delays, more isolation and no quick rescue. DLR noted in its April 27, 2026 [mission update](https://www.dlr.de/en/latest/news/2026/isolation-study-and-bed-rest-studies-begin-100-days-in-isolation-or-60-days-in-bed) that a trip to the Moon takes about three days, while a Mars journey lasts roughly six months when the planets are favorably aligned.

Those travel times change the human problem. Crews must keep working through fatigue, conflict, boredom and stress while also managing equipment, food, schedules and scientific tasks. Amelie Therre, head of SOLIS100 at the DLR Institute of Aerospace Medicine, said, "Future space missions will go beyond low Earth orbit and target distant destinations such as the Moon or Mars."

Therre also said, "Missions to the Moon and Mars require mental and physical resilience, independence and the ability to thrive in isolated and confined environments." SOLIS100 is meant to expose those demands in a controlled setting, where researchers can collect careful data instead of waiting for a rare emergency during an actual expedition.

The study also reflects a simple operational truth: distance changes how a crew makes decisions. When messages take longer, advice from Earth cannot guide every step, so astronauts need stronger routines, steadier teamwork and more confidence in their own judgment. ESA says isolation campaigns help refine support strategies for missions where real-time help is limited or impossible. The agency also links that work to circadian rhythm management, crew selection and training, all of which affect how well a team functions over many weeks.

## How the crew and habitat were prepared

The six volunteers are between 26 and 32 years old and come from six European countries: Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Italy and France. ESA says DLR selected them through a public call followed by medical, physiological and psychological screening, with a strong focus on health, resilience and the ability to follow a demanding routine for the full mission.

The habitat itself is part of [DLR's:envihab facility](https://www.dlr.de/en/me/research-and-transfer/research-infrastructure/envihab-cologne), a research complex built to study how unusual environments affect the human body and mind. DLR describes **:envihab** as a place where scientists can investigate isolation, stress, biology and living conditions under tightly controlled settings. Each SOLIS100 participant has a sleeping pod for private time, while the rest of the schedule is shared and highly structured.

The 2026 mission did not begin from scratch. DLR says the longer campaign was prepared by the **SOLIS8 pilot study** in 2025, which tested the facility and the study structure before the 100-day mission started. A separate DLR update explains that the earlier pilot helped refine procedures, equipment and crew tasks, including operational work inside the simulated station.

The facility design helps explain why DLR chose it for this work. Official material on:envihab says the site includes dedicated modules for psychology, biology and residential simulation, which means the same complex can track mood, performance and microbial changes while people continue living together in a closed setting. That kind of controlled overlap is hard to reproduce during a real mission, where many variables change at once.

## Why isolation studies are paired with bed rest research

SOLIS100 is only one part of the space-medicine picture. ESA explains that isolation studies show what confinement and social separation can do to a crew, while other analogue campaigns focus on the body changes caused by weightlessness. During the same period, DLR also launched the SMC3 bed rest campaign, which looks at how sensorimotor problems linked to spaceflight might be countered.

The official [bed rest studies page](https://www.dlr.de/en/research-and-transfer/projects-and-missions/bed-rest-studies) calls long bed rest experiments the gold standard for simulating some effects of microgravity on Earth. In those studies, researchers watch how muscles, bones, body fluids and the cardiovascular system respond when the body spends long periods in a position that imitates important parts of weightlessness.

**Microgravity analogues** and isolation missions answer different questions, which is why ESA and DLR use both. One approach helps define countermeasures for the body, including cardiovascular and musculoskeletal problems. The other helps build **crew psychological support**, better selection methods and stronger daily operations for crews that may have to live together for months in a cramped habitat far beyond Earth's immediate reach.

ESA's wider material on isolation and confinement studies makes the same point in broader terms: no single ground experiment can reproduce every challenge of deep-space travel. A useful preparation program has to combine different analogues, then compare the results. SOLIS100 adds the human side of that puzzle, showing how a crew handles pressure over time while the body-focused campaigns fill in a different set of risks.