But the habitat on Mauna Loa was not abandoned. While officials at the University of Hawaii and NASA investigated the incident, the wealthy Dutch entrepreneur who built the habitat was thinking about how the dome could be put to use.

Henk Rogers made his money designing computer games, but he is passionate about space exploration, and particularly the idea of constructing human settlements on other worlds. Life on Earth, just like his computers, needs a backup, he has said. It’s why he agreed to build the habitat, and why, when the latest Mars simulation came to an abrupt end, he saw an opportunity.

Under Rogers’s direction and funding, the HI-SEAS habitat will reopen this year—not as a Mars simulation, but a moon one.

“It’s my habitat, for chrissakes,” Rogers told me in a recent interview. “I don’t want to see it sitting there empty and do nothing.”

Rogers has long wanted to build another habitat on Mauna Loa specifically for moon simulations. For him, a moon colony is the next logical step in human space exploration, and a necessary milestone before a Mars mission.

“I describe it like this: You’ve just invented a canoe and you’re sitting on Maui and you’re looking at Lanai, which is right next door, and someone says, hey, let’s row to England,” he said. “I’m saying let’s row to Lanai first. Let’s learn how to live on the moon before we start trying to live on Mars.”

Over the summer, as NASA officials deliberated whether to maintain funding for the HI-SEAS program, Rogers and a small team got to work refurbishing the habitat. They installed new floors and furniture and upgraded the computer systems. They spruced up the interior design to make the habitat look more “space-y.” They replaced the aging space suits with sleek new versions.

Read: When a Mars simulation goes wrong

The first test simulations begin next week, and will last about two days. The regular simulations will last several weeks. Rogers plans to solicit research proposals from scientists from around the world.

The makeover doesn’t mean that the Mars simulations are done for good. There will be a mission seven someday, said Kim Binsted, a professor at the University of Hawaii and the HI-SEAS principal investigator who, years ago, approached Rogers about building the habitat on Mauna Loa.

After the incident in February, NASA reviewed Binsted's grant. Human-research programs undergo similar reviews every year, but this one was especially "intense," she said. “They asked a bunch of questions.”

By mid-October, Binsted had obtained formal approval to continue her research and even received more funding. NASA did not assign blame or issue punitive measures. “Everything I’ve heard from them is that they are still confident in the work that we’re doing and eager to get our results,” she said.

But HI-SEAS had run out of time. A new simulation this year would take Binsted and her team beyond the deadline of the grant.