Kelly Haston, a Canadian scientist, did not grow up dreaming of living on Mars, but she will soon spend a year preparing for precisely that.

She will be one of four volunteers who will enter a Martian habitat in Houston, Texas, at the end of June, where they will live for the following 12 months.

Summarising her participation in a simulation of a protracted stay on Mars, the 52-year-old said, “We’re just going to pretend we’re there”.

“It still seems a little unreal to me”, she laughs.

These long-term experiments allow NASA, which carefully chose the participants, to examine the behavior of a crew in an isolated and limited environment, ahead of a potential real flight.

According to Haston, the space agency has warned that participants would suffer equipment malfunctions and water restrictions, as well as some surprises.

Their contact with the outside world will be hampered by the delays that occur between Earth and Mars – up to 20 minutes one way and 40 minutes two ways, depending on the planets’ locations.

“I’m very excited about this, but I’m also realistic about what the challenge is”, says the research scientist, whose status as a permanent resident of the United States qualified her for the programme.

The Mars Dune Alpha habitat is a 3D printed 1,700 square-foot (160 square-meter) arrangement that includes bedrooms, a gym, communal spaces, and a vertical farm to raise food.

“It’s actually a surprisingly spacious feeling when you go inside it”, said Haston, who went last year before her participation was finalized.

“We also have an outdoor area where we will simulate spacewalks or Mars walks”, Haston added.

This compartment, separated by an airlock, is filled with red sand, yet it is still covered rather than open air.

The crew will have to don their suits for spacewalks, which Haston, a registered member of the Mohawk Nation, says is probably one of the things that I’m looking forward to the most.

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