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Mission to Mars (Or Maybe Just Hawaii)

After a year, a NASA Mars mission crew has returned back to civilization—but they were in Hawaii, not on Mars. It was all part of a project called the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS); according to NPR's report, "The goal of HI-SEAS is to test what it would be like for people to live on Mars, and what the project designers call 'team performance and cohesion'—or how a group of strangers might handle being stuck together for 12 months." The crew of six lived together in a "1,200-square foot, solar-powered dome on the side of a Hawaiian volcano" in order to simulate the feel of a Mars base. In such close quarters, getting along with crewmates can become a challenge: According to one of the members, the "biggest enemy" (in addition to boredom) could be "the rest of the crew." Most of us won't be packing for a year-long space mission simulation anytime soon, but we might get called into situations and relationships that test our patience and willpower—and that's when we figure out that our own strength can't handle it.

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