A team of six crew members have completed a year-long experiment in Hawaii which mimicked life on Mars.

The team have lived in a small dome on Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii, the closest to a Mars habitat that we can get on Earth.

They have lived without fresh air, fresh food or privacy for 365 days to see the viability of a mission to the Red Planet.

The experiment was a test of the effects of isolation and confined conditions that a three-year-long flight to the red planet would entail.

The Nasa-funded study run by the University of Hawaii is one of the longest of its kind.

The moment the team emerged from the dome after a year of isolation was captured on camera:

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

Christiane Heinicke, Christiane Heinicke, German HI-SEAS crew member, said: "Showing that it works, you can actually get water from the ground that is seemingly dry. It would work on Mars and the implication is that you would be able to get water on Mars from this little greenhouse construct."

Kim Binsted, principal investigator for the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation, said: "The researchers are looking forward to getting in the ocean and eating fresh produce and other foods that weren't available in the dome."