Neil Scheibelhut has always harbored a fascination for space, the moon and the stars. As a member of the Young Astronauts Club in grade school, he even dreamed of what it might be like to visit a distant planet.

Starting Oct. 15, the University of Hawaii at Hilo graduate will get a taste of just that during a simulated mission to Mars funded by NASA.

Scheibelhut will join five other crew members who will boldly go to Hawaii island and live in a domed habitat for eight months amid the isolated Red Planet-like terrain at the 8,000-foot elevation of Mauna Loa.

It’s all part of a study known as the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation, or HI-SEAS, which examines the human factors that contribute to astronaut crew function and performance during lengthy space travels, such as those anticipated for a manned mission to Mars.

UH-Manoa’s Kim Binsted, the study’s principal investigator, said the HI-SEAS site offers a remarkably high-fidelity environment for this type of long-duration space study.

"Looking out the single porthole window, all you can see are lava fields and Mauna Kea in the distance," Binsted said in a statement. "Once the door is closed, and the faux airlock sealed, the silence and physical separation contribute to the ‘long way from home’ experience of our crew members."

This upcoming mission — the third in a series of HI-SEAS missions in the last few years — will be twice as long as the previous one and second in length only to Russia’s Mars500 experiment.

Last year NASA awarded $1.2 million to HI-SEAS to continue its work over three years, which includes a one-year study that will be launched in the spring. Officials say the study will coincide with the joint U.S.-Russian one-year mission to the International Space Station and has the potential to serve as a ground-based control group for this effort.

During the upcoming odyssey, UH researchers and their collaborators will study the group’s cohesion over time, gathering data on a wide range of cognitive, social and emotional factors that may affect team performance.

The crew will be continuously monitored using surveillance cameras, body movement trackers, electronic surveys and more.

It kind of sounds like the CBS reality show "Big Brother."

"Psychologically speaking, it is just like that," Scheibelhut said. " … Without the creative editing."

Researchers will be observing closely, he said, mining information about social dynamics and the challenges astronauts might face in an isolated and tight space. They also want to see how people accomplish tasks they’re not used to doing, he said.

Scheibelhut, who has been working as a microbiologist in Los Angeles, said he’s excited and ready to go. As an Iraq War combat veteran and infantry medic, he’s used to performing during a prolonged team operation with no privacy, in an exotic location and under stressful conditions.

This time there will be no hostile fire.

"I should be more relaxed," he said. "It’s definitely doable — physically and mentally."

Born in Indiana, he also lived in Tennessee before joining the military. After receiving a medical discharge, he became a medical assistant instructor in Cleveland before pursuing a bachelor’s degree in cell and molecular biology at UH-Hilo, graduating with high honors.

Why Hawaii?

"Why not Hawaii?" he responded. "I guess I was just looking for a change. Hawaii has a lot of stuff going on in astronomy and biology. And it’s Hawaii. It’s a pretty awesome place as far as that goes."

During his time in Hilo, Scheibelhut volunteered at the Onizuka Center for International Astronomy and was involved with research that included NASA’s RESOLVE moon rover analog test and U.S. Department of Agriculture research on rat lungworm disease.

He also volunteered as a support staff member on the first HI-SEAS mission, hauling water and supplies to the habitat and bringing waste back down the hill, among other things.

Scheibelhut said he didn’t think he actually had a chance to join the in-house crew, but members who emerged from the Mauna Loa habitat encouraged him to apply, and that’s what he did. He has been assigned as the mission’s medical officer.

Scheibelhut quit his job in Los Angeles and is planning to pursue a master’s degree in molecular biology and bioengineering at UH-Manoa after the mission is complete.

At Manoa he wants to focus on the power of microbes and bacteria, in particular, to perform specific tasks. In the same way bacteria is used to produce human insulin — by inserting the DNA sequence that produces the life-saving protein — the belief is that other tasks can be performed as well, such as hydrolyzing water to produce oxygen and hydrogen, two gases that would be quite useful for, say, a mission to Mars.

If he is not able to go to Mars himself one day, he said, it is his hope that he can help his fellow man get there through his research.