NASA studies human behavior in Mars-like environments

Scientists will live for 8 months at the domed house in Hawaii, USA to study the change in human behavior in the Mars simulation environment.

A group of scientists has just moved to the dome to simulate the Mars environment at the volcano Mauna Loa, Hawaii, USA, AP reported on January 19. This is a project to study human behavior, including psychological difficulties when living in isolated and cramped conditions for a long time.

Researchers will live 8 months in a Mars simulated environment.(Photo: AP).

The team consisted of four men and two women, carefully selected from 700 candidates. They will live in a 110-square-meter house called the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) within 8 months.

Members are not allowed to interact directly with outsiders and only communicate to the support team. However, the transmission will take place with a 20-minute delay, the equivalent of the time it takes to send the message from Mars to Earth.

The domed house has a small sleeping area for members, as well as a kitchen, a laboratory and a bathroom. The crew's main food is frozen dry food, some snacks and canned foods.

The house of Mars simulated dome in Hawaii, USA.(Photo: AP).

Each member will wear a space suit when going out to perform tasks such as geological exploration, mapping. They will also wear equipment to assess their mood and proximity to other members of the team.

This experiment will support the plan to bring astronauts to Mars to carry out NASA's long missions.

"We hope to find the best way to choose astronauts, gather crews, as well as a plan to support them when implementing an extended space mission," said Kim Binsted, science professor. University of Hawaii, USA, said.