Sri Lanka’s Piyumi Wijesekera has been selected as one of NASA’s four new volunteer crew members for a simulated mission to Mars, taking place within a habitat at the agency’s Johnson Space Centre in Houston.
Joining Wijesekera are Jason Lee, Stephanie Navarro, and Shareef Al Romaithi. The team will enter the agency’s Human Exploration Research Analog, or HERA, on Friday, May 10th. Over the course of 45 days, they will live and work like astronauts before exiting the facility on June 24th, simulating their “return” to Earth. Jose Baca and Brandon Kent serve as alternate crew members for this mission.
HERA provides scientists with insights into how crew members adapt to isolation, confinement, and remote conditions, crucial for preparing astronauts for deep space missions to destinations like the Moon and Mars.
During their simulated mission to the Red Planet, the crew will conduct scientific research and operational tasks, including virtual “walks” on Mars’s surface and experiencing communication delays with Mission Control Centre lasting up to five minutes each way as they “approach” Mars.
This crew marks the second group of volunteers to participate in a simulated Mars mission in HERA this year, with two more missions planned before the end of 2024. Piyumi Wijesekera, a postdoctoral research scientist at NASA Ames Research Centre in California’s Silicon Valley, specializes in developing tissue models to study the effects of spaceflight stressors on the human respiratory system.
Wijesekera holds a bachelor’s degree in bioengineering from the University of California, San Diego, and master’s and doctorate degrees in biomedical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her doctoral research focused on stem cell and organ engineering, particularly in engineering lung models to study respiratory diseases.
Living in San Francisco, Wijesekera enjoys spending time with family and friends, running along the San Francisco Bay, reading, hiking, volunteering at the food pantry, and attending concerts and musicals.