Although his mission was cut short due to Hurricane Harvey, Richard Addante, an assistant professor of psychology, got to experience something “out of this world.”

Addante participated in a simulated NASA mission to an asteroid, conducted at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. This mission was the second of the fourth campaign of the Human Exploration Research Analog, or HERA.

Addante was a member of the HERA XIV crew of four people who participated in the space agency’s Human Research Program in a mission that simulates space exploration without leaving Earth. It is part of several research analogs, which NASA describes as “a situation on Earth that mimics physical and mental effects on the body experienced in space.”

“The most memorable (experience) was the innumerable instances of fun times laughing together with the crew, and piqued when I took the first (simulated) steps landing on the asteroid using virtual reality,” Addante said.