The U.S National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) officials recently announced its newest project involving the research of a set of astronaut twins and the effects of weightlessness on the human body.
For this experiment, NASA recruited twin astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly. Scott will go on a mission to the International Space Station (ISS) and stay there for a year, while Mark will stay here on Earth, playing the role of a controlled variable in the experiment setup.
The Kelly twins are required to submit samples of their saliva, urine, and blood. The 50-year old astronauts will also be subjected to a series of rigorous physiological and psychological examinations before, during, and after the experiment.
Currently, the ideal duration of an astronaut's stay in the ISS is pegged at six months and there are a few astronauts who managed to stay longer than that. According to NASA, Scott's year-long stay in the ISS will provide new insights on how the space environment affects the human body, documenting the gradual changes different levels, including genetic and physical alterations. Scott's trip is also expected to give researchers an idea on how long astronauts can last when sent to a mission to Mars or an asteroid.
"We realized this is a unique opportunity to perform a class of novel studies because we had one twin flying aboard the International Space Station and one twin on the ground," deputy chief scientist of NASA's Human Research Program, Craig Kundrot, , said in a press release.
"We can study two individuals who have the same genetics, but are in different environments for one year," he added.
The Kelly twins used to work as Navy pilots before they were recruited to become astronauts in 1996. They have been into seven missions and both of them were given the role of space shuttle commanders. In 2011, Mark Kelly retired from his work at NASA and the Navy to support his wife, former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords after she survived an assassination attempt.
