Six ‘astronauts’ have begun a year-long NASA experiment to simulate what life will be like on Mars, Daily Mirror reports.

It is the longest experiment of its type and their experiences will be used to help plan any future manned mission to the Red Planet, which is expected to take between one and three years.

The team is made up of a French astrobiologist, a German physicist and four Americans - a pilot, an architect, a journalist and a soil scientist.

The participants will live and work in a 1,000sq ft dome in the harsh and remote slopes of a dormant volcano in Hawaii.

HI-SEAS (Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation), is a NASA-funded experiment to simulate what a manned expedition to the Red Planet might be like.