Fans of the movie, “The Martian,” will be excited to know that NASA continues to plan for a Mars mission in the 2030s. Since last August, six people are enduring a year-long study inside a 300 square-foot dome about 8,000 feet up the side of Hawaii’s Mauna Loa. The mock astronauts are busy studying the Martian-like geography of Mauna Loa while wearing EVA (extra-vehicular activity) suits. But most of their time is spend inside their dome home where they maintain solar panels, use composting toilets, eat shelf-stable food, conserve water, and observe each other’s ability to survive and get along with each other in an incredibly small space for one year. The crew is being constantly tracked by medical and psychological researchers, but their only contact with the outside is through email and radio with a built-in 20 minute delay to mimic the communication delay between Earth and Mars.
