Astronaut Twin Study To Reveal Subtle Effects of Spaceflight on the Human Body
NASA's Human Research Program will study identical twin astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly - one flying aboard the International Space Station and one on the ground - for one year. Although NASA's Human Research Program has been researching the effects of spaceflight on the human body for decades, these new investigations will provide NASA with broader insight into the subtle effects and changes that may occur in spaceflight as compared to Earth-based environments. The studies will focus on four areas: human physiology, behavioral health, microbiology/microbiome, and molecular or -omics studies.
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Transcript
00:00:11 [ Music ] ^M00:00:11 >> Back in November of 2012, shortly after Scott Kelly was selected for the one year mission, he asked the question will there be anything special having to do with my twin brother, Mark, back on earth? We realized this was a unique opportunity to do a class of studies because we had one twin flying and one twin on the ground.Okay, so you may have heard of the classic question; are some of our diseases or behaviors due to our nature, our genes or our nurture, the environment which we grow up and the things that we do. With Scott and Mark Kelly, we can study two individuals that have the same genetics but are in different locations.
00:00:49 The investigations we selected fall into four categories. The first has to do with the molecular level and involves the kind of tests you would have in your doctor's office, blood tests and urine tests. The next has to do with what's called the micro biome, all the bacteria living in your gut; they change with time and disease state. The third is intact human physiology, the whole body. And the fourth area is behavior and thinking; how does a year in space change your ability to do spatial manipulations in your mind, how does it change your alertness, things like that. These investigations give us a special opportunity to look at subtle changes in Scott because
00:01:32 we can compare Scott's changes to the changes or lack of changes in Mark on the ground. Spaceflight challenges people in several ways. With this study, we're in a position to look at how humans respond to these challenges and put us in a better position to explore far beyond earth and to better understand how we humans function. ^E00:02:01