Skip to main content

NASA will isolate 6 researchers in a dome for a year to simulate a Mars mission

Six NASA recruits began the longest US isolation experiment to simulate life on Mars by locking themselves into the HI-SEAS dome habitat in Mauna Loa, Hawaii. The international team is comprised of a French astrobiologist, a German physicist and four Americans civilians including a pilot, an architect, a doctor/journalist and a soil scientist. The year-long trial is one of four HI-SEAS experiments with the space agency previously researching Mars cooking techniques as well as conducting shorter-term cohabitation experiments lasting four and eight months.

The isolation experiments are designed to simulate the cramped conditions and environmental stresses astronauts would experience on a multi-year mission to Mars. Located in a barren area of Mauna Loa, the 13,570 cubic feet HI-SEAS dome measures 36-feet in diameter and is only 20-feet high. Inside the structure, each participant has a room with a sleeping cot and a desk. They have a limited Internet connection, are provided pre-packaged food for meals and can only leave the dome if they are dressed in a space suit. By providing these stresses, the space agency can study how a group handles conflict when there is limited access to fresh air, almost no fresh food and very little privacy.

NASA has already spent $1.2 million on several of these simulations and has recently awarded HI-SEAS an additional $1 million for future experiments to last through 2018. A previous cohabitation mission ended earlier this year after eight months in the HI-SEAS facility. During that simulation, participants successfully resolved all conflicts that arose during their isolation, providing valuable data on the crew personalities and relationships. Data from that latest simulation is expected to be released publicly sometime next year.

NASA has been studying Mars using robotic explorers for more than 40 years, but that’s only the beginning. The space agency plans to send a human crew to an asteroid in 2025 as a precursor to a manned Mars mission that will follow in the 2030s. In the interim, robotic spacecraft, rovers and experiments such as those being conducted at HI-SEAS will provide valuable information about Mars, space travel and the special needs of the crew who will be making the groundbreaking trip.

Kelly Hodgkins
Kelly's been writing online for ten years, working at Gizmodo, TUAW, and BGR among others. Living near the White Mountains of…
Elon Musk voices renewed hope for first crewed Mars mission
In this artist’s concept, NASA astronauts drill into the Martian subsurface. The agency has created new maps that show where ice is most likely to be easily accessible to future astronauts.

With his new buddy Donald Trump now back in the White House, SpaceX boss Elon Musk has renewed hope of getting the first humans to Mars before the end of this decade.

During his inauguration speech on Monday, President Trump said that his administration “will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars.”

Read more
NASA has two ideas for how to get samples back from Mars
An illustration of NASA's Sample Return Lander shows it tossing a rocket in the air like a toy from the surface of Mars.

NASA has big goals for Mars. It wants to collect the first-ever samples from the Martian surface and deliver them back to Earth in an ambitious mission called Mars Sample Return. But even in its development phase, the mission has run into problems. With a ballooning budget and unrealistic time frame, NASA decided last year that it needed a new approach to the mission, and now it has announced an update. It's working on two ideas, with the best to be chosen in 2026.

“Pursuing two potential paths forward will ensure that NASA is able to bring these samples back from Mars with significant cost and schedule saving compared to the previous plan,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “These samples have the potential to change the way we understand Mars, our universe, and – ultimately – ourselves. I’d like to thank the team at NASA and the strategic review team, led by Dr. Maria Zuber, for their work.”

Read more
NASA’s exciting 2024 began with a crash that ended a historic mission
NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, right, stands near the apex of a sand ripple in an image taken by Perseverance on Feb. 24, 2024, about five weeks after the rotorcraft’s final flight. Part of one of Ingenuity’s rotor blades lies on the surface about 49 feet (15 meters) west of helicopter (at left in image).

NASA had a busy 2024, overseeing space station operations, monitoring a slew of ongoing missions, preparing for upcoming Artemis lunar flights, and much more.

It also began the year with a fully functioning helicopter on Mars.

Read more