NASA : Twin astronauts volunteer for space-effects study

Astronaut Scott Kelly is gearing up for a one-year stint next spring aboard the International Space Station and his twin brother will be offering more than his usual moral support.

Retired astronaut Mark Kelly will be joining in from Earth, where he’ll undergo medical testing before, during and after his brother’s American-record-setting flight as part of an unprecedented study of identical twins.

Researchers hope to better understand how prolonged weightlessness affects the body, by comparing the space twin with the ground twin.

Scott will make history as the first American to spend 12 months in space. Currently the longest NASA’s mission for a single person lasted 7 months.

The world record is held by the Russians for their mission which lasted 14½ months between 1994 and 1995.

In a recent interview with The Associated Press he said he doesn’t have second thoughts. The idea is exciting him as the day draws nearer. This is not his first time to be in space.

Between 2010 and 2011 he spent almost half a year in space. He is so eager about the mission that he has agreed his skull to be drilled to insert a pressure sensor, and has also agreed for spinal taps in space.

NASA scientists are an excited lot. They consider themselves lucky to have identical twins to make comparisons. According to Craig Kundrot, of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, the Kelly’s are a scientific gift. Ap art from being genetically same, one is also a retired astronaut.

NASA has selected 10 parameters for study including gut bacteria, fluid shift in space and reaction time.

NASA will pump in a total of $1.5 million in a period of three years.

Agencies/Canadajournal