- NASA has recently announced the findings of “Twins Study”. The study has been published in the journal Science.
- The NASA’s Twin Study is a comprehensive review of the response of the human body to spaceflight. The study was conducted on two identical twins, one of whom spent one year in low-Earth orbit aboard the International Space Station while the other remained on earth. The study was conducted from 2015-2016.
- The Twins Study has demonstrated the resilience and robustness of how a human body can adapt to a multitude of changes induced by the spaceflight environment. It has revealed that long-term space missions are likely to cause major changes to astronauts’ metabolisms, genetics and cognitive performance.
- The Twin Study is a significant step and will help guide future biomedical space research. Further, it could also provide important insights for NASA’s 2020 mission to Mars, a mission that is expected to last two to three years.
