CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida
(Reuters) - NASA's only
identical twin astronauts are
planning to serve as guinea pigs
for studies investigating the
genetic impacts of long-duration spaceflight. Astronaut Mark Kelly, who
commanded four space shuttle
missions including the final flight
of Endeavour, is set to be a test
subject on Earth while his twin
undergoes studies in orbit. Kelly left NASA in 2011 to care
for his wife, former U.S.
Representative Gabrielle
Giffords. She was shot through
the head in January 2011 when a
gunman opened fire at a political event in Arizona, killing
six people and wounding 26
others. His brother, Scott Kelly, is
preparing for a year-long
mission aboard the International
Space Station, the longest
single spaceflight NASA has
ever attempted. Four Russian cosmonauts lived
for a year or longer aboard the
now-defunct Mir space station. "This is sort of our first foray
into the genetic aspects of
spaceflight," said John Charles,
chief scientist with NASA's
human research program at the
Johnson Space Center in Houston. "A study like this is going to be
mostly observational, just see
what we can find out," he said. The U.S. space agency is
soliciting ideas from researchers
about possible experiments. Mark Kelly, who lives in
Arizona with his wife, has
volunteered to go to Houston
several times during his
brother's year-long spaceflight
for tests, Charles said. Scott Kelly is a veteran of two
shuttle missions and previously
served as a space station crew
member and commander. Scientists would be looking for
genetic differences in the twins
due to one brother living in the
gravity-free environment of
space and the other on Earth. "I'm hopeful that most of this
can be done with blood that will
be drawn or with things like
questionnaires and surveys.
That would be the easiest to
implement," Charles said. "But we are prepared for any
kind of suggestions that the
scientific community present
that do pass peer-review and do
promise to illuminate the
differences in (identical) twins in response to spaceflight," he
said. Scott Kelly, who will be paired
with Russian cosmonaut Mikhail
Kornienko for the year-long
spaceflight, is set to board the
station in March 2015, about a
month after he and his brother turn 50. Proposals for the twins studies
are due next month.

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