HI-SEAS Mission V crew preparing to enter Mars simulation habitat

The crew has been selected, and research studies confirmed for the 2017 mission of the University of Hawai?i at Manoa's Hawai?i Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS).

At approximately 3:30 p.m. on January 19, 2017, six astronaut-like crewmembers will enter a geodesic dome atop Mauna Loa on the island of Hawai?i as part of an eight-month research study of human behavior and performance. The NASA-funded project aims to help determine the individual and team requirements for long-duration space exploration missions including travel to Mars.

HI-SEAS principal investigator and UH Manoa Professor Kim Binsted is proud of the project's contribution to understanding human behavior and performance in space.

"Since 2012, HI-SEAS has been contributing to NASA's plans for long-duration space exploration. We are an international collaboration of crew, researchers and mission support, and I'm proud of the part we play in helping reduce the barriers to a human journey to Mars."

During the eight-month HI-SEAS Mission V the crew will perform exploration tasks such as geological fieldwork and life systems management. The isolated and confined conditions of the mission, including 20-minutes of delayed communication and partial self-sufficiency, have been designed to be similar to those of a planetary surface exploration mission. Daily routines include food preparation from only shelf-stable ingredients, exercise, research and fieldwork aligned with NASA's planetary exploration expectations.

Under the watchful eye of the research team and supported by experienced mission control, the crew will participate in eight primary and three opportunistic research studies. The NASA-funded primary research will be conducted by scientists from across the U.S. and Europe who are at the forefront of their fields.

The primary behavioral research includes a shared social behavioral task for team building, continuous monitoring of face-to-face interactions with sociometric badges, a virtual reality team-based collaborative exercise to predict individual and team behavioral health and performance and multiple stress, cognitive countermeasure and monitoring studies.

HI-SEAS Mission V follows the successful 12-month Mission IV that was completed in August 2016. That mission placed HI-SEAS in the company of a small group of analogs capable of operating very long duration missions in isolated and confined environments similar to Mars500, Concordia and the International Space Station.