A year in a bubble: NASA begins most ambitious Mars-analog mission yet

A researcher explores the area around the HI-SEAS habitat on the slopes of Mauna Kea, Hawai‘i Island. Photo courtesy of HI-SEAS.

On Friday 28 August 2015, six scientists left the comforts of civilization, set to be gone for an entire year. Their mission will simulate what it might be like for astronauts journeying to Mars.

In the confines of a 36-foot-wide and 20-foot-high solar-powered dome in a remote location on the slopes of Mauna Kea on the island of Hawai‘i, the six team members will have to live together for 365 days. They will have no face-to-face contact with humans outside of the dome. This is the fourth and longest such mission carried out by the Hawai‘i Space Exploration Analog and Simulation program (HI-SEAS).

“We hope that this upcoming mission will build on our current understanding of the social and psychological factors involved in long-duration space exploration,” said Kim Binsted, principal investigator for HI-SEAS, as well as graduate student in Geology & Geophysics (G&G) and professor of Information and Computer Sciences (ICS).

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