Crew enters isolated dome for a year to simulate Mars travel

SCI-TECH

Crew enters isolated dome for a year to simulate Mars travel

Graham Slaughter CTVNews.ca Staff
Published Sunday, August 30, 2015 3:15PM EDT

This March 10, 2015 photo provided by the University of Hawaii at Manoa HI-SEAS Human Factors Performance Study shows a dome in which six scientists will live an isolated existence to simulate life on a mission to Mars, on the bleak slopes of dormant volcano Mauna Loa. (Neil Scheibelhut/University of Hawaii at Manoa via AP)

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In a small white dome perched on a dormant Hawaiian volcano, a team of scientists is living in cramped quarters and eating powdered food for a year to simulate the challenges of travelling to Mars.

Their mission: get along.

Six crewmembers 鈥� a physicist, an astrobiologist, a soil scientist, a pilot, an architect and a doctor 鈥� entered the solar-powered, 11-metre wide dome atop the barren Mauna Loa on Friday.

A network of cameras will watch the team as researchers study the group鈥檚 interactions, focusing on social and emotional factors that could make or break a future trip to the red planet.

The scientists will survive off a diet of space-friendly food such as canned tuna and powdered cheese while sleeping in small cots. Internet access is limited, and any time outside the dome must be spent in a head-to-toe spacesuit.

The 365-day social experiment is the longest of two similar Hawai驶i Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) missions inside the dome. Previous experiments have lasted four months and eight months.

鈥淭he longer each mission becomes, the better we can understand the risks of space travel,鈥� said Kim Binsted, HI-SEAS principal investigator, in a news statement.

Researchers hope to get a better understanding of the social and psychological hurdles astronauts face during long-term space travel. Those findings will be used to help NASA select teams for future cosmic journeys.

NASA has said it hopes to send humans to Mars sometime in the 2030s, a challenging feat estimated to last up to three years.

Previous HI-SEAS missions have analyzed communication strategies, conflict resolution scenarios and the pros and cons of pre-cooked versus crew-cooked meals.

The latest HI-SEAS crew includes a doctor/medical writer with two master's degrees, an architect developing a 鈥渘ext generation conceptual Mars habitat鈥� and an astrobiologist who researches extra-terrestrial life forms.

NASA is currently operating the Curiosity rover on Mars. The $2.5-billion remote-controlled robot is exploring unseen regions of the planet, taking close-up photos and collecting data on rocks and soil.