A space crew must have diverse professional profiles. "In future long-duration missions, not only engineers and technicians will be needed, but also culture, humanities, and communication," remarks Jennifer García Carrizo, a science communicator at Rey Juan Carlos University. She herself is proof: in February 2025, she participated as a journalist in the Hypatia II mission, which – with an all-female crew – simulated the conditions of Mars in the Utah desert. It was "twelve suns," in practice fifteen days, of an intense mission that she now recounts in the book Mission Mars.

The third crew of Hypatia, a Catalan initiative that conducts and disseminates space research, is already underway with a very clear objective: to carry out the first expedition to an Arctic research base made up exclusively of women. In the summer of 2027, ten scientists, including Catalan specialists, will land at the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (fMARS), an analog station located on Devon Island in the Canadian Arctic archipelago, which simulates challenges similar to those astronauts would encounter. In addition to the personal projects each crew member will develop, Hypatia III will contribute to scientific research at the station in collaboration with the regional government of Nunavut and its population. The goal is to monitor the permafrost—that is, ground frozen for at least two years—and assess water quality to detect possible contamination from meltwater. Furthermore, they will also study cellular aging, which is accelerated in space due to radiation. For this reason, the astronauts will follow a diet to improve their biological resilience, and also to potentially improve life expectancy on Earth.