"Walking on grass without shoes and socks is really very interesting": NASA test subjects after 8 months under the dome

On August 17, an eight-month experiment ended, in which six scientists were isolated under a dome in Hawaii.

(4 photos in total)

Source: BuzzFeed

The volunteer scientists have been living under a 111-square-meter dome since January 19. The team included an astrobiologist, a biomedicist and four engineers. The eight-month study was the fifth of its kind to be funded by NASA. As part of the experiment, the organizers tried to reproduce life on the space station as accurately as possible in order to understand how the participants of a potential mission to Mars would feel.

During the experiment, the participants had limited access to information. When sending messages to "Earth" there was a 20-minute delay — that's how long a signal from Mars needs to get to Earth. There was no access to Google either.

To find out what was happening at home, the crew requested news, and in response they were sent a screenshot. The participant of the experiment, Ehrlich, adhered to the habit of following the news on Mars as well. Ehrlich is originally from Florida, so he was interested in news related to Hurricane Irma. Also during his isolation, he began to monitor North Korea's nuclear program. The fact is that if the Koreans had launched a missile, Hawaii would have been in the affected area. The crew, even though they pretended to be on Mars, still remained on Earth.

During the experiment, participants could leave the dome to explore a mock-up of Mars, but only in spacesuits. When Ehrlich was able to put on just shorts and a T-shirt, he was incredibly glad:

For eight months, the crew ate exclusively frozen and canned food. Since leaving the dome, Ehrlich has been enjoying burgers and fresh fruit. And, according to him, he was glad to have the opportunity to take a bath again.

Erlich admitted that he called his mother and grandmother as soon as he left the dome. "I wanted to hear their voices," he said.