Six people have begun an 8-month mission to Mars -- a simulated one, that is, courtesy of an enclosed dome on a Hawaiian volcano.
The Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation, Hi-Seas for short, is a NASA-funded study meant to find out how -- or even if -- a limited group of people, isolated and living in cramped quarters, can manage to get along with each other and work together.
The answer to the question is of vital importance to any real mission to the Red Planet, which would require a 6-month spaceflight there in a necessarily cramped spacecraft, followed by 500 days living and working on the surface of Mars, and then a second 6-month journey home.
Aside from the immense technological hurdles to be overcome, there's the human element, and its inherent hazards, that have to be examined, researchers said.
"Right now, the psychological risks are still not completely understood and not completely corrected for," says principle project investigatory Kimberly Binsted, a professor of computer science and information at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
The isolation of a long Mars mission could lead to depression, experts say, and seemingly petty personality conflicts can become magnified and even dangerous.
"NASA is not going to go until we solve this," says Binsted, who will be observing from outside, not inside, the dome.
NASA has set a time frame of the decade of the 2030s for a possible Mars mission.
In a previous Mars mission simulation conducted in Russia from 2010 to 2011 that stretched for 520 days, four of the project's six volunteers experienced sleep disorders coupled with a decline in their productivity throughout the project.
In the Hawaii project, six volunteers -- 3 men and 3 women -- will live in a two-story dome-shaped building just 36 feet across.
The crew, selected for a mix of background and experiences similar to those of actual NASA astronauts, will live, work and sleep in just 1,500 square feet of living space at 8,000 feet up on the slopes of the volcano Mauna Loa.
To recreate the isolation of space, the crew, commanded by Canadian Martha Lenio, will for all intents and purposes be cut off from Earthly contact.
Communication with the rest of the world will be limited to emails, which will be subject to a 20-minute lag in sending and receiving to simulate the transmission time between Mars and Earth.
In addition to Lenio, 34, the crew consists of Purdue University graduate student Jocelyn Dunn, 27; University of Idaho graduate student Sophie Milam, 26; NASA aerospace engineer Allen Mirkadyrov, 35; microbiologist Neil Scheibelhut, 38, a former Army medic; and mechanical engineer Zak Wilson, 28.
The crew will spend time performing various scientific work and will also participate in activities outside of the dome while wearing spacesuits.
"If you're going to keep people in a can for eight months, you want to get as much science out of them as possible," Binsted said. "It also means NASA gets a lot of bang for their buck."
