NASA’s first and only yearlong spaceman will go through a series of physical and medical tests as soon as he returns from the International Space Station in a few days.
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NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly is seen inside a Soyuz simulator at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC) March 5, 2015 in Star City, Russia. As luck would have it, Kelly has an identical twin brother, Mark Kelly (a former astronaut himself) to whom possible genetic changes, caused by radiation exposure, can be compared.
“The post-flight data are as important as the inflight data to help us learn how to send humans safely to Mars and return them safely to Earth”, said John Charles, NASA’s Human Research Program chief scientist. That is why for almost a year, he has spent his time on the International Space Station (ISS) around 250 miles above our planet. Astronaut Scott Kelly tweeted “Often when I look out the window I think we should call it Planet Water instead of Earth”. During the January 2015 State of the Union Address, President Obama recognized Kelly, who was in the audience, for his upcoming Year In Space mission. Logged 143.8 million miles.
Scott has consumed nearly 200 gallons of recycled urine and sweat, which was collected from him and others on the board.
Since arriving at the space station on March, 27, 2015, Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Korneinko have served with eight different crewmates, unpacked six cargo ships, weathered two botched supply runs and participated in dozens of science experiments.
“NASA’s priority is to maintain crew member health throughout long duration missions”, said Brinda Rana, a professor in the School of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry and principal investigator on the UCSD part of the study.
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While Kelly claims to be ready to return to solid ground, he has expressed that if he needed to, he could probably do another 100 days, or possibly even a year, according to USA Today. I could go another year if I had to.
