Mars Simulation Ends After A Year's Isolation

Six scientists have emerged from a year-long self-enforced isolation in order to simulate what it would be like to live on Mars.

The group lived in a dome on Hawaii's Mauna Loa mountain and could only go outside wearing spacesuits.

The lava-covered landscape was considered the closest earth-based environment to conditions on the red planet.

Scientists tested how they managed with limited resources while conducting research and trying to avoid personal conflicts.

The simulation has been the second-longest of its kind after a mission that lasted 520 days in Russia.

One of the team said he felt the experiment had been a success.

Cyprien Verseux, a crew member from France, said: "I can give you my personal impression which is that a mission to Mars in the close future is realistic. I think the technological and psychological obstacles can be overcome."

Tristan Bassingthwaighte, who served as the crew's architect, said: "The UH research going on 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, and sort of the human factors element of space travel, colonisation, whatever it is you are actually looking at."

The project is called the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS).

Kim Binsted, principal investigator for HI-SEAS, said the researchers are looking forward to eating fresh produce and other foods that weren't available in the dome.

She said: "HI-SEAS is an example of international collaborative research hosted and run by 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."