Mark Kelly (Gabby Giffords hubby) & brother Scott Kelly start "Unprecedented Astronaut Twin Study"

[progressoid]

NASA Picks 10 Experiments for Unprecedented Astronaut Twin Study

NASA will focus on veteran astronaut Scott Kelly, who will embark on a year-long mission to the International Space Station in March 2015, and his identical twin brother, retired astronaut Mark Kelly, who will stay put on on Earth, acting like an experimental control.

...

Officials with NASA's Human Research Program announced Friday (March 7) that they will fund 10 investigations as part of their overall study of the Kelly brothers in space and on Earth.

The study will require the 50-year-old twins to give regular samples of blood, saliva, urine and stool; they'll also have to undergo physiological and psychological tests at regular intervals before, during and after the one-year space mission, according to NASA.

"We realized this is a unique opportunity to perform a class of novel studies because we had one twin flying aboard the International Space Station and one twin on the ground," Craig Kundrot, deputy chief scientist of NASA's Human Research Program, said in a statement. "We can study two individuals who have the same genetics, but are in different environments for one year."

Currently, a typical stay aboard the International Space Station is about six months, and only a few humans have ever flown in space for a year or longer. (All of them were Russian cosmonauts aboard the space station Mir.) NASA officials have said that Kelly's longer voyage will allow researchers to more fully examine how spaceflight affects the human body, from subtle changes on the genetic level to changes in the makeup of gut bacteria. The extended trip might also give NASA officials insight into how well astronauts would fare on long missions to an asteroid or Mars.

http://www.space.com/24985-nasa-identical-astronaut-twins-science.html

Here is NASA's list of the 10 winning proposals, which will receive a combined $1.5 million for their research over three years:

Emmanuel Mignot, Stanford University School of Medicine, HERO Twin Astronaut Study Consortium (TASC): Immunome Changes in Space

Michael Snyder, Stanford University, HERO Twin Astronaut Study Consortium (TASC) Project: Longitudinal integrated multi-omics analysis of the biomolecular effects of space travel

Brinda Rana, University of California, Proteomic Assessment of Fluid Shifts and Association with Visual Impairment and Intracranial Pressure in Twin Astronauts

Susan Bailey, Colorado State University, Differential effects on telomeres and telomerase in twin astronauts associated with spaceflight

Fred Turek, Northwestern University, HERO Twin Astronaut Study Consortium (TASC) Project: Metagenomic Sequencing of the Bacteriome in GI Tract of Twin Astronauts

Andrew Feinberg, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Comprehensive whole genome analysis of differential epigenetic effects of space travel on monozygotic twins

Christopher Mason, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, The Landscape of DNA and RNA Methylation Before, During, and After Human Space Travel

Mathias Basner, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, HERO Twin Astronaut Study Consortium (TASC) Project: Cognition on Monozygotic Twin on Earth

Stuart Lee, Wyle Laboratories, Metabolomic And Genomic Markers Of Atherosclerosis As Related To Oxidative Stress, Inflammation, And Vascular Function In Twin Astronauts

Scott Smith, NASA Johnson Space Center, Biochemical Profile: Homozygous Twin control for a 12 month Space Flight Exposure

note: I deleted a dupe post of this in GD that was intended for the Science group

[longship]

1. Of course, they will track kidney stones.

Which is a rather big issue in micro-gravity.

Calcium goes out of the bones and into the kidneys, making stones.

Rule #1 about spending time in micro-gravity: Get exercise that models one G.

Rule #2: Stay well hydrated.

You absolutely do not want to have a kidney stone attack in low earth orbit.

Trust me. I know them well.

Interesting post.
R&K

[Callmecrazy]

2. I second that...

That is some serious pain.
And all you can do is let it take it's course.