An worldwide group of scientists emerged on Sunday after a year of near isolation in a research station set up in Hawaii to simulate conditions on Mars.
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The scientists are housed in a dome on Mauna Loa and can go outside only in spacesuits, the Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported.
On 28th August, they are about to end this yearlong intense Mars simulation mission. “I think the technological and psychological obstacles can be overcome”, Verseux said.
“Showing that it works, you can actually get water from the ground that is seemingly dry”. To make matters worse, the compound is situated within a rich landscape of rolling mountains, a challenge that proved “tempting” to crew member Tristan Bassingthwaigthe, a Montana native who was accustomed to spending time outdoors.
The project’s principal investigator Binsted said that three other shorter simulations were held in the Hawaii dome and two more simuations – of eight months each – were planned for the future.
“HI-SEAS is an example of worldwide collaborative research hosted and run by the University of Hawai’i”.
The project is funded by NASA and overseen by the University of Hawaii.
“The longer each mission becomes, the better we can understand the risks of space travel”, Binsted said in 2015 before the mission.
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Scientists in the Hawaii simulation managed limited resources while conducting research and working to avoid personal conflicts. Crews traveling to Earth’s neighbor would have to survive in an inhospitable environment and wait for the ideal planetary alignment to enable them to travel home.
