Paving the way to Mars

Photo: The Canadian Press

A group of NASA-funded researchers are poised to enter an isolated geodesic dome on a remote Hawaii volcano to study human behaviour in long-term space exploration, including a planned voyage to Mars.

The six scientists enter their new home Thursday on the Big Island's Mauna Loa volcano for an eight-month stay.

The team will have no physical contact with people in the outside world and will work with a 20-minute delay in communications, the time it would take for an email to reach Earth from Mars.

The study will assess the psychological difficulties associated with living in isolated and confined conditions for an extended time.

The project is designed to help the U.S. space agency send humans on long space voyages including to Mars by the 2030s.

"We're hoping to figure out how best to select individual astronauts, how to compose a crew and how to support that crew on long-duration space missions," principal investigator Kim Binstead, a University of Hawaii science professor.

Leading the crew is mission commander James Bevington, a freelance space scientist who has acted as a visiting researcher for the International Space University. The other team members include engineers, a computer scientist, a doctoral candidate and a biomedical expert.

They were selected from a group of 700 applicants that went through cognitive and personality tests as well as extensive interviews.

The researchers will wear devices around their necks that measure their moods and proximity to other team members. They'll also use virtual reality devices to simulate familiar and comforting surroundings they wouldn't have access to while living on Mars.

They will wear space suits whenever they leave the compound to conduct daily tasks including geological and mapping studies. The crew eats mostly freeze-dried foods that have a long shelf life. Some canned food and lightweight snacks are also brought in, including one of Hawaii's favourites.

"Spam gets quite popular," Binstead said.