A team of recruits from the US Space Agency, NASA began a period of living in a dome near a desert volcano in Hawaii, to simulate what would live on Mars.
The six recruits entered and locked themselves inside the dome at 3:00 pm Friday.
The isolation experiment, which will last a year, will be the largest of its kind.
Experts estimate that a manned mission to Mars would take between one and three years.
Uncomfortable and cramped
The team six people live in cramped conditions inside the dome, no fresh air, no privacy or fresh food.
If you wish to leave the dome, measuring just 11 meters in diameter and 6 meters high, will be done in . a spacesuit
The NASA team includes men and women of France, Germany and the United States with different professions. space biology, physics, soil studies, aviation, architecture and journalism
Each will have a small table and a desk in their rooms.
The food supplies include powdered cheese and canned tuna.
The missions to the International Space Station last six months. So far, the US space agency has conducted experiments isolation four and eight months.
In November 2011 ended in Russia a similar experiment insulation 18 months.
The project Mars500 six men locked in a simulator in a laboratory in a suburb of Moscow and allowed them to have very little contact with the outside world.
While other tests focus on the technical and scientific challenges of an extended space travel, the isolation experiments address the human element of exploration and the problems that can arise from community life in a tight spot.
“I think one of the lessons is that really can not be avoided conflicts between people. That will happen during long missions, even with the best individuals, “said Kim Binsted, a researcher at NASA.
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