Scott Thompson: How are you in isolation?

How are you with groups of people in very small places?

That was the objective behind an experiment helping to choose the NASA astronauts that will eventually take the long journey to Mars.

The four men and two women spent eight months inside a confined living space the size of a small two-bedroom home on a volcano in Hawaii that mimics the landscape of Mars.

They could only exit their living structure in full space suits to do assigned tasks as they would on the red planet.

The fresh foods we take for granted on a daily basis were replaced with canned and freeze-dried supplements to last a couple of years until you they could grow their own.

Communication with home was possible, but it takes 20 minutes for a response.

That’s nothing to those of the pre-internet age, but to the next generation, that kind of delay will seem like an eternity.

Wait until the numbing nine-month journey.

Which is why they are doing this.

It takes a special type of problem solver to live on top of each other with no escape for the three or so years the group will be in complete isolation.

The last thing you want to do is take nine months to get somewhere, only to find out you can’t stand the person you are sitting beside.

You only have to ride a bus to realize that.