Twin brother astronauts devised a human spaceflight experiment, to be performed on themselves.
United States astronaut Scott Kelly and his twin brother, former astronaut Mark Kelly will participate in the experiment, USA Today reported.
Scott will take a year-long trip to the International Space Station while his brother stays home, researchers will monitor the well-being of both twins over the course of the trip.
"I have to say this is a cool idea. Hats off to the Kelly brothers for making this offer," Keith Cowing, editor and manager of NASA Watch, wrote in a website comment, according to USA Today.
The research will be secondary to the joint Russian/American experiments at the ISS with Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko.
"As currently conceived, this project will center on established plans for blood sampling on the flying twin at regular intervals before, during and after the one-year ISS mission, and will obtain corresponding samples from the nonflying twin, who will otherwise maintain a normal lifestyle," NASA said, in a solicitation for research proposals.
"Limited additional sampling" of blood, saliva, cheek swabs and stool will be considered along with psychological or physical performance tests as long as they don't interfere with primary research and the experiments illuminate one of more aspects of transient or long-term effects of spaceflight on humans," the solicitation said.
The Kelly brothers are the only twins to have flown to space, Florida Today reported.
Scott Kelly has already flown two shuttle flights and spent six months at the ISS.
His brother, Mark, participated in four space shuttle missions and has spent 54 days flying through space. He retired after commanding the last-ever flight of the orbiter Endeavour in May of 2011.
Mark is married to U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz. She was wounded in a Tucson assassination attempt that left six people dead in January of 2011.
