Six scientists who spent a year in near isolation to simulate life on Mars finally came out of their dome in Hawaii on Sunday Aug 28,2016
The group spent 12 months in a dome on Mauna Loa volcano , 8,500 feet above sea level.
They
could go outside only if they wore spacesuits, to explore a barren
landscape as similar to Mars' environment as planet Earth can get.
As
the simulation ended on Sunday Aug 28,2016, the crew came out and announced the
simulation had shown a mission to Mars could succeed in the near
future.
Six people (Carmel Johnston, Christiane Heinicke, Tristan
Bassingthwaighte, Cyprien Verseux, Andrzej Stewart, Sheyna Gifford shown
here in 2015) shut themselves inside a dome for a year in Hawaii, in
the longest US isolation experiment aimed at helping NASA prepare for a
pioneering journey to Mars
WHAT WAS THE HI-SEAS MISSION?
The
Hi-Seas (Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation) mission's
crews spent months 8,500 feet above sea level in a geodesic-dome habitat
on the northern slope of the Mauna Loa volcano.
The
volcano is a barren landscape, an abandoned quarry with little
vegetation that's as similar to Mars' landscape as planet Earth can get.
The
crew members live under Mars-like conditions. According to Hi-Seas
'communication latencies and blackouts, in close quarters, under strict
water-use rules, etc' are part of the deal.
The food study was designed to test food preparation strategies for long-term space exploration.
Hi-Seas
aims to address problems that may be encountered in future space
missions by simulating exploration in areas of the world similar to
space environments.
The
aim mission, funded by Nasa's Human Research Program, the University of
Hawaii and Cornell University, is to learn about living sustainably on
Mars.
The
third mission started on 15 October 2014 and lasted for eight months,
while the final mission lasting a year began in August 2015.
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