On Tuesday, six scientists emerged from an abandoned quarry on Hawaii's Mauna Loa volcano after spending four months simulating what it is like to live on Mars.
The Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation, or HI-SEAS, is a NASA-funded study led by Cornell University and the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
The goal of the study was to find foods that astronauts would be able eat and prepare on long-term missions to deep space, like a trip to Mars.
For 118 days, mission commander Angelo Vermeulen and his team members cooked, ate, and kept detailed records of meals made from dehydrated and shelf-stable ingredients from their pantry. The list of available foods included everything from freeze-dried chicken to milk powder to crackers.
Based on pictures (unfortunately we weren't able to taste the food for ourselves), the dining on Mars doesn't look to be half-bad.
The space habitat is located 8,000 feet above sea level on the side of a Hawaiian volcano, Mauna Loa.
The isolated setting was ideal because it had no visible plant or animal life.
A two-story dome featured a ground floor with a kitchen, dining room, bathroom, lab, exercise room, and common spaces. Here's a view of the rooms on the day the crew arrived.
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