6 Scientists Just Spent A Year On Simulated Mars. Here’s What They Learned.

[truebluefan]

Sending humans to Mars presents enormous challenges, from the technological to the psychological.

Perhaps no one understands the mental test better than the team of international scientists who just spent a year living inside an isolated, Mars-like habitat atop Hawaii’s Mauna Loa volcano.

Sheyna Gifford, chief medical and safety officer of the fourth Hawaii Space Exploration and Analog and Simulation, or HI-SEAS, told The Huffington Post that the biggest challenges came from a “sense of helplessness.”

When things went wrong on Earth, whether it was a terrorist attack, flooding in Louisiana or a family member’s death, “trying to find a way to help from here is very difficult,” Gifford said.

On Sunday, the six-man crew will emerge from their dome free of spacesuits for the first time in 365 days, bringing to a close the longest space travel simulation ever conducted on U.S. soil.

Read more http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/year-on-mars-hawaii-hiseas_us_57bf7086e4b04193420e7b6e?