Inside The World’s Biggest Analog

Inside the Habitat is a brand new series from Aspiring Martians that takes listeners behind the scenes of the analog simulations shaping humanity’s future on the Moon, Mars, and beyond. These habitats — scattered across deserts, cities, oceans, and even aircraft — are where we test the limits of human psychology, teamwork, and technology before attempting real off-world settlement.

To kick off the series, Joe Sweeney starts big with the World’s Biggest Analog, a first-of-its-kind global simulation that connected 16 habitats across 16 countries in a shared Mars mission. Rather than isolating one crew in one location, this ambitious project explored what planetary-scale collaboration might look like for future settlements.

Joe is joined by Jas Purewal, Senior Scientist and the founder and Director of the World’s Biggest Analog — a role she somehow balances alongside her many others. Jas is also the co-founder and Director of the Analog Astronaut Community, which brings together analog astronauts and researchers from around the world and will host its 5th Analog Astronaut Conference from April 30 to May 3, 2026, at Biosphere 2 in Arizona.

In this conversation, we explore how the World’s Biggest Analog came together, what it revealed about global cooperation, and why analog missions are critical rehearsals for humanity’s next giant leap.

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