A groundbreaking genetic study of twin NASA astronauts Mark and Scott Kelly may teach us as much about the human body as about space. (From the archive)
On the short list of people who’ve been into space, two are identical twins. Scott and Mark Kelly, whose parents were police officers, are both NASA astronauts; they’re about to become subjects in a unique and groundbreaking study. In March, Scott—a former International Space Station commander and veteran of the space program—departs on a one-year mission to the ISS, alongside Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko.
Scott Kelly will be living on the Space Station for a full year, a first for any American astronaut. Living in space affects virtually every system in the human body. Without gravity’s downward pull, “the body deconditions,” says Canadian astronaut Robert Thirsk, and loses muscle mass, and bone. Even after five decades of space flight, we still don’t understand its full effects. “It seems that every time we do something different, a new problem crops up,” Thirsk says.
Already, Smith’s research has turned up some clues on the troubling question of why some, like Thirsk, have a shift in vision: he’s found that those who do have higher levels of homocysteine, an amino acid that’s often a marker of cardiovascular disease. We don’t know why, “but there may be a predisposition,” he says. “When you fly two astronauts, and one gets vision issues and the other doesn’t, there’s a very clear possibility that genetic differences are contributing.
While his brother’s in space, Mark won’t mimic Scott’s on-orbit activities; he’ll live his regular, earthbound life.
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