Six Scientists Lived in a Tiny Pod for a Year Pretending They Were on Mars

[Group] Five, four, three, two, one.

Come on.

(cheering)

[Narrator] Welcome back from Mars

you crazy astro-masochists.

Okay, it was actually just Hawaii,

but for a full year, these six scientists,

lived in a Mars habitat simulator called, HI-SEAS,

on the big island.

HI-SEAS is an example of international collaborative

research, hosted and run the University of Hawaii.

So it's really exciting to be able to welcome

the crew back to Earth and back to Hawaii

after a year on Mars.

[Narrator] Did they science the (bleep) out of it

Mark Whatney style?

They sure did.

They were confined to their dome,

and only made periodic journeys onto the volcanic surface

of Mauna Loa in their Martian sim-suits.

Hey, nice kicks!

A mission to Mars in the close future, is realistic.

I think the technological and psychological obstacles

can be overcome.

[Narrator] This was the second longest Mars simulation

ever undertaken.

That honor belongs to a group of Russians,

who spent 520 days in a pod, and you thought

your roommate was lame.

The UH research going up here is just super-vital

when it comes to picking crews, figuring out

how people are going to actually work on

different kinds of missions.

It's sort of the human factors element of space

travel, colonization.

[Narrator] The crew is sealed off,

just like they would be on Mars.

Email is slowed to a Martian, 20-minute delay

and food power and water, were limited to what was on hand.

Just showing that it works, you can actually get water

from the ground that is seemingly dry.

It would work on Mars and the implication

is that you would be able to get water on Mars

from this little greenhouse.

[Narrator] So what does a returning Martian explorer

want to eat?

Pizza and bananas, of course.