5th 'Mars Mission' Simulation Ready For Launch In Hawaii

"Later today, six people will enter a dome on a volcano in Hawaii that will be their home for the next eight months, as they simulate a future mission to Mars."

"It is the fifth such experiment run by the University of Hawaii and funded by NASA. The latest mission on Mauna Loa, which ended in August 2016, lasted a full year. It is known as the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation, or HI-SEAS."

"The goal of HI-SEAS is to test what it would be like for people to live on Mars, and what the project designers call "team performance and cohesion" — or how a group of strangers might handle being stuck together for months on end."

"'It could be a long trip to Mars despite recent bold assurances of faster rocket ships, or a long stay on the Martian surface,' a summary of the mission states. 'In either case, astronaut crews far from Earth will rely on a social resilience and team cohesion previously untested in deep space.'"