Mars mission: NASA begins year-long isolation experiment

The US space agency NASA has launched the longest US isolation experiment yet, as part of preparations for a pioneering journey to Mars.

(Image: University of Hawaii) Source: (Image: University of Hawaii)

The six-person crew includes French astrobiologist, a German physicist and four Americans - a pilot, an architect, a doctor/journalist and a soil scientist.

The $A1.67 million experiment will be based at a six-metre tall dome in Hawaii in preparation for the journey to Mars, which NASA hopes to reach in the 2030s.

HI-SEAS crew members (University of Hawaii) Source: University of Hawaii

Each of the crew members will have their own rooms with a sleeping cot and desk. Their diet will consist of canned tuna and powered cheese.

Spacesuits will need to be worn for trips outside the dome, and access to the internet will be limited.

Crew member Sheyna Gifford said the sacrifices will be worth it.

"[We are] six people who want to change the world by making it possible for people to leave

it at will," she wrote on her blog, LivefromMars.life.

NASA estimates that a human mission to Mars would take between one and three years.