Mars Mission: 6 Volunteers Start One-Year NASA Experiment In Total Isolation

NASA just began it one-year long "isolation experiment" on Friday to replicate life on Mars here. There were six recruits who have got locked in a dome in a barren volcano in Hawaii, agreeing to "eat, communicate, and live" as if they were on Mars.

The dome about 36 feet wide and 20 feet high, housing a French astrobiologist, a German physicist, a pilot, an architect, a journalist and a soil scientist. It has cameras and body movement trackers, so the scientists can assess how the volunteers would get impacted, according to The Independent.

The team of men and women will each have a small sleeping cot and a desk and food consisting of powdered cheese and canned tuna.

They would have to don a spacesuit if they want to step out, and in the year-long experiment, they should eat only powdered and canned food and with low Internet access.

The experiment is now going to be double the amount of time taken at an International Space Station. NASA is aiming to understand scientific and human problems. The actual Mars mission will call for one to three years, according to hngn.

"I think one of the lessons is that you really can't prevent interpersonal conflicts. It is going to happen over these long-duration missions, even with the very best people," NASA investigator Kim Binsted told BBC News.

As of now, NASA has allocated just $1.2 million for the Mars isolation experiment, and will conduct three more experiments soon.