After expend 342 successive days onboard the International Space Station from 2015 to 2016 , astronaut Scott Kelly now moderate therecordfor tenacious single space mission by an American . But his " One - Year " study with NASA was about more than breaking records : Its purpose was to show how prolonged time in orbit would set up Kelly ’s genetic make-up compared to that of his monovular duplicate crony on Earth . Now , succeed late evaluations of the two men , it come out that Scott Kelly ’s gene reflection was significantly spay by his sentence in space , Space.comreports .
NASAannouncedthe most recent finding from itsTwins Studyahead of a more comprehensive newspaper combining the body of work of multiple squad of researchers that is slate for later in 2018 . Like his brother Scott , Mark is also an astronaut , make the brace the only twin astronauts in history . So when NASA was looking for a way to study the long - terminus effect of outer space aliveness , the siblings were a perfect fit .
As Scott was sendingtweetsandblowing bubbleson the ISS , Mark stay on Earth to answer as the restraint . Biological samples taken from both subject before , during , and after the space flight showed some striking differences . accord to an investigation conducted by Susan Bailey of Colorado State University , Scott ’s telomere , the protective " pileus " at the ends of chromosomes that shorten as we age , got longer in blank . The telomere began shrinking back to preflight grade , however , a few days after Scott ’s return to Earth . Scott was subjected to regular exercise and a qualified dieting aboard the ISS , so the raw life-style may explain the sudden telomere boost .
Other genetic differences stuck around even months after landing . " Although 93 percent of genes ' expression returned to normal berth - flight , a subset of several hundred ' space gene ' were still disrupted after return to Earth , " acccording to a NASApress release . About 7 percentage of Scott ’s genes may show longer - term changes , included the genes connect with DNA stamping ground , resistant health , bone organization , hypoxia ( an O deficiency in the tissues ) and hypercapnia ( excessive carbon dioxide in the bloodstream ) .
A long listing of factor , like irradiation , thermic confinement , and zero gravity , may have contributed to the results . NASA be after to utilize these findings to grow countermeasure against these effects , which will be essential if the office be after to ship man to Mars , a journey that could take three times as long as Scott Kelly ’s ISS mission .
[ h / tSpace.com ]
