Volunteers Get Taste of Mars in Hawaii
For generations, people have dreamed of traveling to Mars to explore Earth’s closest planetary neighbor. NASA and other space agencies have announced plans to send people to the Red Planet.
In the United States, some volunteers are learning how people will react to months of separation from other humans on a Mars base.
What would it be like to live on the planet Mars? Volunteers are spending eight months in an area that looks much like the surface of Mars. But actually, they are living in Hawaii.
Six people are isolated high on top of Mauna Loa, a volcanic mountain on the Big Island of Hawaii. They are living on a simulated, or make-believe, Mars Base. The project is called HI-SEAS, or Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation.
Mauna Loa is almost as tall as that Martian mountain. When measured from its base, deep in the ocean, Mauna Loa is the second largest mountain in our solar system, after the one on Mars.
The six member HI-SEAS crew is mostly self-sufficient. They take care of themselves. Food and supplies are brought to them. But the individuals bringing those supplies cannot communicate with volunteers inside the habitat, or base.
Others believe the American or European space agencies are the most likely to put people on Mars, maybe in the 2030s, or later.
