In 1911 Australian explorer Douglas Mawson left Hobart and sailed to an uncharted stretch of Antarctic coastline, where he built a hut on the edge of the frozen continent at Commonwealth Bay. Mawson's team was handpicked for their skills and compatibility, and endured isolation, privation and the pressures of living in one anothers' pockets for a year - strikingly similar conditions to those that will be encountered on future long-term space missions to Mars. A year later, Mawson lost his entire team, and surviving on ration biscuits and dog meat while struggling alone across huge glaciers, he made it back to civilization.