Research team call for in NASA ’s groundbreaking Twins Studyhave confirmedtheir preliminary finding , with a full paper explain the upshot expected later this year .
The Twins Study pick up researcher supervise spaceman Scott Kelly on the International Space Station ( ISS ) from March 2016 to March 2017 , in comparison to his twinned brother Mark who remained on Earth .
This provided a unique opportunity to see the personal effects of spacefaring on a man . Scott spend a yr on the ISS as part of theYear in Spacemission , together with Russian astronaut Mikhail Kornienko . Alongside the Twins Study , it ’s hoped this missionary station will help prepare astronauts for the three - twelvemonth yield trip to Mars .
In January this year , the 10 investigator call for in the Twins Study confirmed their preliminary determination fromlast yr , and also sum up some findings that have been made since Scott returned to Earth . you’re able to understand a elaborate summation of the researchhere , but we ’ll run through some of the most interesting finding below .
Susan Bailey from Colorado State University found that Scott ’s telomeres , the “ caps ” on the last of chromosome , increased in length while he was in space . But within 48 minute of landing they abridge , and later returned to the length they were before his charge . Mark ’s , on the other hired man , remained the same .
The cause may be the rigorous exercise Scott had to go through on the post to maintain bone and musculus mass . Another possibility , backed up by research from Scott Smith of NASA ’s Johnson Space Center , is that Scott ’s healthier diet on the ISS may have play a part . This may also have lead to a cliff in consistency flock while in place .
A incontrovertible result from Emmanuel Mignot of Stanford University found that being in distance did not affect Scott ’s resistant system . He render both Scott and Mark a flu vaccine before , during , and after Scott ’s mission , and obtain both had an increased immune cadre response . That ’s ripe news for protect astronauts from disease on tenacious - length mission .
It was also come upon that 93 percentage of Scott ’s factor returned to normal after he shore . However , the 7 percentage of genes that did not indicate that there are some long - condition changes from prolonged spaceflight unite to DNA fixture , bone formation , and more .
Later this year , the squad will release their joint newspaper detail the findings , alongside a series of littler papers in bear on areas . Until then , we are just starting to get a handle on on the nose what spacefaring does to the human body – and how that might affect astronauts pass to Mars or elsewhere in the future .
