Six smiling people entered a dome on a barren Hawaiian volcano on Friday afternoon, and it remains to be seen whether they'll still be smiling after a year of isolation to simulate life on Mars.
The HI-SEAS IV is the longest mission yet to simulate long-duration space exploration. University of Hawaii Manoa researchers will be monitoring the group's cohesion in the NASA-funded study.
.@HI_SEAS crew members were all smiles before entering the dome this afternoon. See you all in a year! #NASA #space pic.twitter.com/ApDnUIgqXj— University of Hawaii (@UHawaiiNews) August 29, 2015
Each crew member will get a little sleeping cot and desk, and dine on delicacies such as powdered cheese and canned tuna.
A mission to Mars could take up to three years, and researchers want to find out the best way to compose a team that can handle the stress.
"The longer each mission becomes, the better we can understand the risks of space travel,” said Kim Binsted, HI-SEAS principal investigator and UH Manoa professor.
Luckily for those of us who don't fancy a year of complete isolation from the human race, we can follow their progress on social media. Here are the tweeters among the group:
Sheyna Gifford, health science officer and journalist
First dinner in simulated space: the cheese & turkey quesadilla & all the veggies were all dehydrated 30 min ago. pic.twitter.com/LX91nUT29v— Sheyna Gifford (@humansareawesme) August 29, 2015
Andrzej Stewart, engineering officer
MD0: Our first Martian sunset. @HI_SEAS @humansareawesme @CyprienVerseux pic.twitter.com/QV5Ea9y24Q— Andrzej Stewart (@HISEAS_Andrzej) August 29, 2015
Cyprien Verseux, astrobiologist
What would you do before leaving Earth for a year? http://t.co/6EQhhLW2Wk— Cyprien Verseux (@CyprienVerseux) August 24, 2015
The other crew members are soil scientist Carmel Johnston, architect Tristan Bassingthwaighte and physicist Christiane Heinicke.