Mars on Earth – The Guardian (2015)

As the Mars Curiosity Rover is scouring the planet surface and expanding our knowledge NASA is working on ways to help prepare future colonists using an experimental enclosure called Hi-SEAS which stands for the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation.

Hi-SEAS is an exploration of Human nature. How will a small group of space travelers cooperate and solve problems external and internal inside a confined habitat? A return mission to the red planet will be long. It will take about six months to Mars, 500 days on the planet, and then another six months home. An interplenatary mission that will last two to three years can lead to depression. Conflicts among the crew can spin out of control over the months. Psychology of space farers is extremely important. In his famous book series of Mars trilogy (Red Mars, Blue Mars, Green Mars) Kim Stanley Robinson made an interesting case about the psychological status of first Martians. How can we design more intelligent identifiers of cooperativity, productivity under confinement, crowding and isolation? Hi-SEAS aims to find clues and solve these challenging psychological pitfalls that may jeopardize a mission. NASA’s Mars missions are expected to happen around 2030s.