Identical Twin U.S. Astronauts to Serve as Research Subjects

NASA hired identical twins to conduct an experiment to investigate the "genetic impacts of long-

duration spaceflight."

Astronaut Mark Kelly is staying on Earth to be the informational base of the experiment while his identical twin, Scott Kelly, is being the informational base during orbit.

Scott “is preparing for a year-long mission aboard the International Space Station, the longest single spaceflight NASA has ever attempted.” He has been veteran in two shuttle missions and has been a crew member at the space station and commander too.

Mark lives in Arizona with his wife but is willing to travel as much as needed to Houston to conduct the experiment. He left his work at NASA in 2011 to take care of his wife (Gabrielle Giffords, who is a former U.S. Representative) who was shot through the head in January of 2011 at a political event in Arizona in which a gunman left six people killed and 26 wounded.

Scientists will investigate the differences between the twins while one is in a gravity-free environment and the other one is in Earth.

The yearlong spaceflight is set to launch in March of 2015. The twins will have just turned 50.

 

 

 

 

 MLA Citation:

"Identical Twin U.S. Astronauts to Serve as Research Subjects." NewsDaily:. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Aug.
           2013.