NASA Studies Kelly Twins to Understand Space's Impact on Human Body - East Idaho News
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NASA Studies Kelly Twins to Understand Space’s Impact on Human Body

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getty 032615 markkellyscottkelly?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1427388392484Peter Kramer/NBC/NBC NewsWire via Getty Images(NEW YORK) — NASA will examine how a year of zero gravity will affect the human body when Scott Kelly blasts off for an extended stay on the International Space Station.

But NASA isn’t just going to look at Kelly and fellow astronaut Mikhail Kornienko. The team also will be following Scott Kelly’s identical twin brother, Mark Kelly, as an earthbound control group.

Officials hope to understand what exactly happens to a human body hundreds of miles above Earth’s surface.

“We need to figure out how people are going to live in space for really long periods of time, especially if we want to send somebody to Mars or maybe we want to build a base on the moon,” Mark Kelly told ABC News’ David Kerley.

There are a number of studies being conducted, with collaborations among various universities, including Stanford University, Colorado State University, Johns Hopkins University and Cornell University.

The astronauts will be subject to a battery of tests looking at things such as muscle mass, bone loss and even the shape of their eyeballs. In a previous NASA study, some astronauts reported a change in vision after the physical shape of their eyeballs changed.

NASA medical officer Dr. Steven Gilmore said being able to compare samples between identical twins would be helpful for the research.

“You can look at, in detail, how the genes and the proteins that are made from them change as a result of this unique environment,” he told ABC News.

Researchers will look at how genes go “on and off” during space flight and if being away from Earth in the vacuum of space affects proteins in the body.

NASA wants to know how the stressors unique to space flight could change the body. This means seeing how microgravity, confinement in the space station and radiation changes affects the proteins and metabolic systems in the body.

NASA also wants to discover how blood flow changes — a result of microgravity — can have unexpected effects on the body. One hypothesis is that astronauts’ eyes change shape in space because blood volume on their upper body increases without gravity.

“Your nose gets stuffy, your eyes get a little bit of pressure,” said Jennifer Fogarty, a clinical transitional scientist in a NASA video. “You feel like you have a really bad head cold.”

The study results could be key in finding a way to send humans to Mars to create a permanent colony on the moon.

“That’s one of the things that make it exciting and something I’m really happy to be a part of,” Scott Kelly said on ABC News’ This Week.

Scott Kelly is scheduled to lift off Friday for his year in space.


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