Six emerge after yearlongMars simulation

Six scientists have completed a year long Mars simulation inHawaii, where they lived in a dome in near isolation.

For the past year, the group in the dome on a Mauna Loa mountain could go outside only while wearing space suits.

On Sunday, the simulation ended, and the scientists emerged.

Cyprien Verseux, a crew member from France, said the simulation shows a mission toMars can succeed.

“I can give youmy 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,’’ Verseux said.

Christiane Heinicke, a crew member from Germany, said the scientists were able to find their own water in a dry climate.

“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 youwouldbeable to getwater onMars from this little greenhouse construct,’’ she said.

Tristan Bassingthwaighte, an architecture PhD candidate at the University of Hawaii, served as the crew’s architect.

“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, colonization, whatever it is you are actually looking at,’’ Bassingthwaighte said.

Kim Binsted, principal investigator for the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog andSimulation program, said the researchers are looking forward to getting in the ocean and eating fresh produce and other foods that weren’t available in the dome.

The program is an international collaborative research hosted and run by the University ofHawaii and funded byNASA, Binsted said.

NEIL SCHEIBELHUT/ UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII VIA AFP The researchers’ habitat was built on the northern slope of Mauna Loa in Hawaii. The simulation program ended on Sunday.

UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII VIA AP Scientists celebrate as they exit from their Mars simulation habitat after a year of near isolation.