RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) A man in Hawaii wants to be selected to go to planet Mars one day and hes doing everything he can right now to prepare.

Tristan Bassingthwaighte is an architect and is researching and designing habitats that humans can survive in on the moon and Mars. He wants a one-way ticket to the red planet.

While it might suck for me personally to get to Mars, what that could bring back to the species eventually through the many things we need to make it possible, is how we move forward as a species really, Bassingthwaighte said.

In 2016, he spent 366 days in a tiny habitat located on top of a volcano on Hawaiis big island. The year-long stay was part of an ongoing study by the University of Hawaii and NASA. The HI-SEAS (Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation) is a habitat 8,200 feet above sea level on Mauna Loa. The conditions are designed to be similar to those of a planetary exploration mission.

Tristan was part of mission four in 2016 and said It was really fun, but added he knows a lot of people were worried about the isolation or the confinement, or youre going to be living in a little room type of thing for a year, but Ive always wanted to be an astronaut since I was like six.

The crew of six had to eat like they were in space and wear a spacesuit to go outside. Tristan said the whole idea is to create a crew that can survive the trip and stay.

Youll go in and find out that I might want to go to Mars, but hanging out with the same five people in a close quarter for a year or a real Mars mission, two years, might be a little much, Bassingthwaighte said.

He said the biggest thing he learned was that there can be people on a mission that have all of the skills and would be good at it, but their focus could never really move outside of themselves.

I was just surprised that even people with doctoral degrees and have worked with NASA before, not everyone was actually a team player, Bassingthwaighte said.

He said the year-long isolation on Hawaiis volcano allowed scientists to gather information on how to make better space habitats.

I want to be the theoretical lead designer for the Mars Colony for SpaceX, said Bassingthwaighte.

CBS 17s Laura Smith had to ask Tristan how hes handling quarantine because of coronavirus after spending a year in a tiny home with five other people. He said the biggest advice he can give is not to focus on when it will end.

So instead of looking for some future thing that we obviously cant pin down, you know what you really could do, is figure out what will get you through today and pretend that its the new normal, he said.

He said pick up a hobby and be selfish when you can.

Unlike work here on Earth, youre stuck with that person so you just have to find levels of patience that maybe you didnt know you had. Id go to my room and read and listen to music for an hour or two. If you rather just play Mario Kart, then just go play Mario Kart, like take care of yourself, Bassingthwaighte said.

HI-SEAS continues to study how humans will survive on the moon and mars. However, the pandemic is slowing the study down.

We have had several missions take place this year and we will have more starting in September. We had to delay four missions in collaboration with NASA to next year due to the pandemic, said HI-SEAS Director Michaela Musilova.

NASA also plans to send people to mars and the moon. You can learn more here about that.

More headlines from CBS17.com:

Go here to see the original:

Man wanting to go to Mars isolates for 366 days in tiny habitat with 5 others as part of study - CBS17.com