A simulation of a mission to Mars will have a group of six crew members carrying out research related tasks to see how people interact in a deep space exploration scenario. 

A simulation of a mission to Mars will have a group of six crew members carrying out research related tasks to see how people interact in a deep space exploration scenario.

Planned to begin in July of 2014, the Mars mission simulation will last for a full year.

The six crew members will spend that time in the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station, a 25 foot tall, 27 foot wide cylinder that has been placed on an island in the Canadian Arctic.

The project is organized by the Mars Society, and will also serve as a way to test out equipment and technologies that might be utilized on the real mission to Mars.

Another deep space exploration simulation, known as Mars 500, was conducted by researchers from the Russian Academy of Sciences.

That crew spent 520 days, from June of 2010 to November of 2011, in isolated conditions that mimicked a real mission to Mars.

Results from the Russian experiment show that the crew members adapted in very different ways to the environmental changes, including sleeping patterns and activity levels.