NASA’s Hawaiian Dome Mock Mission to Mars

As per the recent study financed by NASA, a group of people will spend the next 8 months of their lives living in an isolated dome on a Hawaiian volcano.

Bend Bulletin stated, the study dubbed as HISEAS (Hawaii Space Exploration Analog & Simulation) has been designed to determine how well a small group of people can survive and work together.

Certainly, the study appears to be a test for future manned missions to Mars. NASA already planned to send astronauts to Mars in the 2030s, which is a long and lonely trip. It will take approximately 6 months for astronauts to reach at the Red Planet. After reaching, they will spend 500 days on the planet and tire out another 6 months to back home.

Uncover Michigan reported, “The long-time isolation within the dome can lead to a number of psychological problems such as depression and personality conflicts. The principal investigator for the just started project, Prof. Kimberly Binsted said that the psychological risks of living in in isolation were still not fully understood and not totally corrected for.”

“How do you pick and hold up astronauts for a mission that will last 2 to 3 years in a way that will keep them healthy and performing well? I’m so interested to see how I react. ‘I don’t know’ is the short answer. I think it could go a lot of different ways,” Binsted added.

Though, NASA’s Hawaiian dome mission to Mars is not the first of its kind. A similar mission in Russia lasted 520 days.