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good morning and welcome to the mission

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control center we are about a year away

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now from the launch of scott kelly to

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the international space station for a

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year-long stay there that's going to let

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scientists here on the ground

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have the opportunity to gather more data

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on how the human body is affected by

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long stays in space and in this

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particular case they're going to have a

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special opportunity to compare that data

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here on the ground with someone

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particularly like scott kelly his twin

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brother former astronaut mark kelly we

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have with us here today uh dr craig

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kundratt who is the uh deputy chief

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scientist for nasa's human

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uh human research program and he's gonna

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tell us a little bit more about that uh

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that pro that program thanks so much for

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joining us my pleasure

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so back in november of 2012 the one-year

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mission had just been announced and

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scott kelly uh was announced to that

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mission and he was meeting with members

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of the human research program to learn

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what kind of investigations would be

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taking place during that one year

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mission

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in the course of that conversation he

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asked

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will this involve my twin brother mark

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at all and of course we hadn't

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anticipated necessarily a twin selection

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so they meet the first answer was

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no we don't have anything in the queue

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right now but let us go think about that

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so we reached out to the american

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scientific community and released a

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research announcement and received 40

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proposals

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oh nice 40 was that a good number yeah

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that was an excellent number we ended up

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selecting 10 and they range over a broad

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range of topics from molecular to

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mental function well tell us a little

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bit about why having a twin on the

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ground would be kind of a special

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circumstance and something that you

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would you would be interested in well a

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classic question is

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are

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our behaviors our traits due to nature

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or nurture what's the balance and in the

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case of scott and mark kelly we have a

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setup where we have identical twins so

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that factor the genetics

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the the nature part

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is controlled and so we can look at just

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how the environmental effects

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impact scott and mark and make a more

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careful comparison between the two than

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you could with

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people that aren't identical

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so what kind of ideas did you get for

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the for the twin studies

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well the topics fall into four areas the

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first is the molecular area

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and that uses

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things like blood and urine tests that

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you would have at your doctor's office

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so we're looking at dna rna protein

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metabolites and the like the next topic

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area is called the microbiome so it

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turns out that

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we are outnumbered about ten to one by

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bacteria on our surface of our skin and

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mostly in our gut which is what we're

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seeing here on the screen with the

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that's right

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and the

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the bacteria in our gut can have a

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profound impact on our health and our

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immune system

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and can change in response to stress to

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diet

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to disease to a number of factors so

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that's the second area

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the third is general

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overall human physiology so we're

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looking at the cardiovascular system for

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example and the fluid shifts that occur

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when we go into weightlessness and the

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fourth area is

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cognition

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so we have a battery of tests that are

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looking at things like

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alertness

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the ability to manipulate spatial

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objects in the mind

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and the like okay so you've got 10

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different studies that fall into those

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four categories that's correct can you

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tell us a little bit more about the

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individual studies

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sure for example on the molecular end

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we have one study that's looking at dna

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and more specifically the ends of the

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dna so our chromosomes are capped at the

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end by what are called telomeres special

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sequences and as we get older those

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sequences shorten and as we are exposed

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to stress they shorten

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so we're very interested to look at mark

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and scott at the beginning of the

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mission see what their telomere links

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are like and what scots will be like at

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the end of the mission and at the end of

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the mission scott will have accumulated

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540 days in space whereas mark will have

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had 54.

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yeah one tenth the amount so that's at

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the molecular level

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as i mentioned in the physiology realm

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we're looking at fluid shifts one of the

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concerns that we've noticed on the

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international space station with the

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number of astronauts we've been flying

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for six months is some have developed

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some vision problems

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and

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their visual acuity has changed a little

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bit and we see some changes in the

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structure of the eye

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the exact causes are not well understood

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there are several ideas and so we'll be

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studying mark

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um and scott both with a battery of

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tests that we're using on many

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astronauts in flight okay

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is that normally different in twins or

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their their their vision is that

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usually the same or is it i think it's

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usually the same but in this case you

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know what we've been able to

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do is study a series of astronauts in

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flight but here's a case where we can

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see when we compare to mark on the

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ground going through his daily life his

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yearly life with ups and with with

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various levels of activity different

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types of activity see how much how

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stable his readings are in these various

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measures compared to scott who's going

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through the weightlessness the confined

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environment the exercise regime etc okay

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what will they have to do you know

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versus

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to actually participate in the

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experiments

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well most of it or most of the

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research investigations most of the

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studies

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need either blood

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or urine or fecal samples okay

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but in addition to that there will be

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some cognitive tests which are computer

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run

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and then there will be for the

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physiology there's a whole battery of

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tests that range from ultrasound to mri

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to more blood measurements and and the

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like

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okay so it's all pretty standard stuff

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that they normally would do

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in space as far as the actual collection

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of the data that's correct there is

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nothing that is a completely new type of

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sample or measurement okay any of the

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particular experiments that you are

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really

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looking forward to seeing or most

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interested in what you're going to

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gather well the most interesting thing

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to me

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is that

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for the first time we're we're doing

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what is called olmics type of research

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where we're looking at

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dna changes in the dna there's chemical

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changes that can occur and to help

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regulate genes

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rna protein metabolites looking at all

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of these in a coordinated fashion and

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looking at physiological and mental

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changes as well now with only two

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subjects we don't expect any

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great great grand conclusion to emerge

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but we are in a good position to see

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some subtle changes that we might not be

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able to detect if they were not

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identical twins so what's really novel

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about this

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is bringing all 10 investigations

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together and in a comprehensive way and

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looking for correlations at the

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different levels as we look at space

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flight versus ground okay well speaking

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of

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have participating i know like you said

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that's a little different than usual so

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is it is there are there follow-ups that

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you can do are there ways that you can

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make it um you know more applicable or

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is it or is this going to be good enough

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well

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i don't think

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i can't speak for the astronaut

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selection process in future but i think

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it's unlikely this this will trigger a a

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a

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um

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uh it's more likely i mean the typical

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study that is done with twins is done

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with tens or even on the order of 100

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twins of course we just have the twin

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pair here

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so we're in a good position to identify

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some subtle changes that normally would

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be masked if we didn't have identical uh

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individuals genetically identical

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individuals

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and that will set up follow-up

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experiments or studies that will look at

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those things in more detail and see if

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they are

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broad conclusions to be made so this is

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really

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uh

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a set of studies that will give us clues

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but not

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unlikely to give us definitive outcomes

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or results okay that makes sense and i'm

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sorry i have to ask you said you're

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you're a twin yourself and and married

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to a twin uh i have twin sisters oh twin

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sisters and you're not twins yeah okay

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so they're females in both sets but i i

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so i understand female twin dynamics so

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pretty well all right

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all right then thanks so much for for

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visiting us with us we really appreciate