evidence: The National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) in the United States has selected a new crew of four volunteers, including a Sri Lankan, to participate in a simulated mission to Mars within a habitat at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Issuing a statement, NASA stated that Jason Lee, Stephanie Navarro, Shareef Al Romaithi, and Piyumi Wijesekara will step into the agency’s Human Exploration Research Analog, or HERA, on Friday, May 10. Sri Lanka’s Dr. Piyumi Wijesekara will be part of the primary crew selected to participate in the simulated mission to Mars. Piyumi Wijesekara is a postdoctoral research scientist in the Radiation Biophysics Laboratory at NASA Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. [...] Dr. Piyumi Wijesekara is a multidisciplinary researcher with experience in tissue and organ engineering and regenerative medicine.