evidence: Misleading Posts About Piyumi Wijesekera's Participation in NASA's Simulated Mars Mission [...] The claim that Piyumi Wijesekera is going on a NASA mission to Mars is misleading. Piyumi Wijesekera, along with Jason Lee, Stephanie Navarro, and Shareef Al Romaithi, is part of NASA’s Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA) mission. This mission is a simulated Mars mission, not an actual space mission. The purpose of HERA is to study how crew members adapt to isolation, confinement, and remote conditions similar to what astronauts would experience on long-duration space missions. [...] Piyumi Wijesekera is not currently selected to go on an actual Mars mission. She is participating in a simulated mission as part of NASA’s research to prepare for future deep space exploration. The social media posts suggesting otherwise are inaccurate and misleading.