"Mars Mission" Crew Completes Milestone

One of the most difficult aspects of humans going to mars isn't so much technological as it is psychological. A round trip voyage to Mars would take about one and a half years. For a crew to spend that much time in a small confined space would test their physical and psychological limits (no one likes each other THAT much).

A few days ago a one year experiment that was designed to gather data on this came to an end in Hawaii. Since August of 2015, 6 people have been living in a 1,200 square foot dome on the side of a volcano. They finally emerged yesterday. It looked like no one had killed each other at least, but more than that, they accumulated a huge data base on how living like this is like. This adds to the body of data, such as that accumulated after decades of having an orbiting space station. This is another step toward the human exploration of Mars.

You can see more details here

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/08/29/491794937/mars-mission-crew-emerges-from-yearlong-simulation-in-hawaii

and here