WEBVTT - The NASA Twin Study 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:07.160 Brought to you by Toyota. Let's go places. Welcome to 0:00:07.360 --> 0:00:15.319 Forward Thinking. Hey there, and welcome tough Forward Thinking, the 0:00:15.480 --> 0:00:18.240 podcast that looks at the future and says, my evil 0:00:18.320 --> 0:00:21.400 twin bad weather friend. He always wants to start when 0:00:21.440 --> 0:00:26.120 I want to begin. I'm Jonathan Strickland and I'm Jie McCormick. 0:00:26.160 --> 0:00:28.680 I don't usually ask, but I want to ask this time. 0:00:28.680 --> 0:00:31.240 What was that? That's that's the song by Evil Twin By. 0:00:31.280 --> 0:00:34.000 They might be giants. You go to them a lot, 0:00:34.040 --> 0:00:37.400 don't I do? They? Admittedly I am an enormous thing 0:00:37.479 --> 0:00:40.400 might be giants fan. Now we're going to talk about 0:00:40.400 --> 0:00:43.520 some twins today, but I am under the distinct impression 0:00:43.600 --> 0:00:46.400 that not a one of these two guys is evil. No, no, 0:00:46.760 --> 0:00:49.000 that neither of them appeared to be evil as far 0:00:49.040 --> 0:00:51.600 as I can tell. The one has a mustad not 0:00:52.360 --> 0:00:55.480 well there at times he has a mustach, and we've 0:00:55.520 --> 0:00:58.560 got a story about that later. So we're talking specifically 0:00:58.560 --> 0:01:01.640 about NASA's twin study. But before we get into that, 0:01:01.800 --> 0:01:04.240 we were going to set the ground here a little bit. 0:01:04.280 --> 0:01:07.600 We've talked in previous episodes that space. You know that 0:01:07.720 --> 0:01:09.920 that big black thing up in the sky is trying 0:01:09.959 --> 0:01:13.199 to kill you where most of the everything is most 0:01:13.240 --> 0:01:16.399 of everything that's not us, that's out there it's trying 0:01:16.440 --> 0:01:18.600 to kill us. It's yeah, yeah, our earth does a 0:01:18.640 --> 0:01:22.720 really good job of protecting us from deadly, deadly space. Yeah. 0:01:22.800 --> 0:01:25.600 So it's it's about as harsh an environment as you 0:01:25.640 --> 0:01:28.319 can get to. Uh uh, and and it takes a 0:01:28.319 --> 0:01:30.679 lot of effort to get there actually, But at any rate, 0:01:30.959 --> 0:01:34.200 there are a lot of things that can kill you 0:01:34.319 --> 0:01:36.920 in space, some of which are pretty immediate, like the 0:01:37.000 --> 0:01:39.319 lack of oxygen. That'd be a big one. We need 0:01:39.360 --> 0:01:44.720 that also pretty regularly. Yeah. I was actually talking earlier 0:01:44.760 --> 0:01:48.040 today about someone who was asking me, Hey, does tonightus 0:01:48.040 --> 0:01:50.720 in your ear bother you all the time? I said, 0:01:50.800 --> 0:01:52.480 only when I think about it, and you're making me 0:01:52.520 --> 0:01:54.000 think about it. It's kind of like when you think 0:01:54.040 --> 0:01:56.280 about breathing, and then you get to a point when 0:01:56.280 --> 0:01:59.120 you think about breathing that you worry you will never 0:01:59.240 --> 0:02:02.320 stop thinking about breathing. Oh no, Jonathan, Can I be 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:05.480 pedantic and say we recently had a listener right in 0:02:05.560 --> 0:02:09.120 and tell us to stop pronouncing tenitas tenitas and pronounce 0:02:09.200 --> 0:02:11.720 it tend us because the listener said that is how 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:14.800 it is pronounced. Well, that's funny because it's not the 0:02:14.840 --> 0:02:16.960 way that the guy who was telling me about my 0:02:17.040 --> 0:02:20.320 tenitas was pronouncing it, and he was a doctor. But 0:02:20.480 --> 0:02:23.680 it could totally be wrong at any rate. So there 0:02:23.720 --> 0:02:26.440 are some other concerns besides the immediate ones that will 0:02:26.520 --> 0:02:29.760 kill you right away. Uh, there's radiation. There's a lot 0:02:29.800 --> 0:02:32.600 of radiation out in space, different types of radiation, and 0:02:32.639 --> 0:02:36.480 some of which is potentially extremely harmful to humans. You're 0:02:36.480 --> 0:02:39.320 in a low gravity environment, which is precisely the kind 0:02:39.360 --> 0:02:41.840 of thing that human beings did not evolve in. Yeah, 0:02:42.160 --> 0:02:44.799 low low gravity environment means that you can lose muscle 0:02:44.840 --> 0:02:47.079 mass as well as bone density. I mean, there's some 0:02:47.080 --> 0:02:51.480 some long term effects that can easily be very detrimental 0:02:51.960 --> 0:02:54.639 if you are out there for any good length of time. Yeah, 0:02:54.680 --> 0:02:57.680 Astronauts spend a lot of time on the exercise machines 0:02:57.880 --> 0:03:00.440 just trying to stave off this physical de kay, And 0:03:00.520 --> 0:03:03.560 it doesn't work entirely, No, it's it's at best it 0:03:03.680 --> 0:03:07.160 slows it. Yeah. It also does fun things like reshape 0:03:07.160 --> 0:03:10.120 your eyeballs. Yeah, that's a good one. Makes you taller. 0:03:10.320 --> 0:03:13.000 We'll talk about that a little bit too. I've got 0:03:13.000 --> 0:03:16.480 a fun fact about that. Interesting. So NASA has been 0:03:16.520 --> 0:03:20.360 studying the effects of space on living, breathing human beings 0:03:20.400 --> 0:03:25.280 for decades, right, so that's not anything new. But but 0:03:25.400 --> 0:03:27.680 you know, there's a problem with it, which is that 0:03:27.960 --> 0:03:31.960 you can never know exactly how somebody's health would have 0:03:32.160 --> 0:03:34.880 looked had they not gone into space. Yes, this is 0:03:34.920 --> 0:03:37.840 the problem we talk about with like weather control, because 0:03:37.880 --> 0:03:40.200 you can never tell if it would have rained without 0:03:40.320 --> 0:03:43.640 the weather control either. Right, so what do you do? 0:03:43.680 --> 0:03:46.280 I mean, you send someone up in space, maybe they 0:03:46.320 --> 0:03:49.120 catch a really bad cold, and you aren't really sure 0:03:49.200 --> 0:03:52.320 if that was you know, if being in space made 0:03:52.360 --> 0:03:55.400 that easier for that to happen. How can you tell sure? 0:03:55.440 --> 0:03:57.800 Because a lot of what we're learning about about genetics, 0:03:57.840 --> 0:03:59.920 like the more we dig into the human genome, the 0:04:00.040 --> 0:04:03.840 more we realize that a person's very specific makeup and 0:04:03.920 --> 0:04:06.680 body chemistry has so much to do with how they 0:04:06.800 --> 0:04:08.920 with how they deal with environments. Yeah, so, if you 0:04:08.960 --> 0:04:12.200 want to follow the scientific method, the ideal thing to do, 0:04:12.400 --> 0:04:15.400 if you could, would be to take two exactly identical 0:04:15.560 --> 0:04:18.120 humans and send one into space and keep the other 0:04:18.120 --> 0:04:20.800 one on Earth. But those never exist, Joe, where would 0:04:20.800 --> 0:04:23.760 we find such people? Oh, identical twins. Yeah, and that's 0:04:23.800 --> 0:04:28.880 exactly what has happened. We have just recently seen one 0:04:28.960 --> 0:04:33.240 identical twin, Scott Kelly, come back to Earth and rejoin 0:04:33.400 --> 0:04:38.039 his his fellow identical twin, Mark Kelly here on the surface. 0:04:38.320 --> 0:04:40.640 I think only one of the twins is identical. Oh 0:04:40.680 --> 0:04:43.599 I'm sorry, but one identical twin and the unidentical twin 0:04:43.680 --> 0:04:45.760 met up with each other, of course I'm kidding. Yes, 0:04:46.200 --> 0:04:50.240 uh so they and NASA this was a great opportunity 0:04:50.279 --> 0:04:53.039 for NASA to say, let's take a look at how 0:04:54.040 --> 0:04:58.240 the two compare and contrast after a prolonged exposure to 0:04:58.279 --> 0:04:59.880 Oulter Space for one of them, while the other ones 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:02.760 remains here on Earth. So, then, being twins, I assume 0:05:02.839 --> 0:05:06.160 they were born on the same day. Yes, I mean technically, 0:05:06.279 --> 0:05:08.400 if it were really close to midnight, they could be 0:05:08.480 --> 0:05:10.559 on two different days, or if it was a really 0:05:10.560 --> 0:05:14.440 long delivery. Yeah, yeah, that possibility. But they were both 0:05:14.440 --> 0:05:16.919 born in February twenty first, nineteen sixty four, Mark and 0:05:17.040 --> 0:05:20.039 Scott Kelly. So here's some little little bit of background 0:05:20.040 --> 0:05:23.520 information on the two. Mark Kelly attended the United States 0:05:23.560 --> 0:05:27.080 Merchant Marine Academy and received a bachelor's degree in Marine 0:05:27.160 --> 0:05:31.320 Engineering and Transportation UH. Much later, he earned a master's 0:05:31.360 --> 0:05:35.720 degree in aeronautical engineering at the US Naval Postgraduate School. Meanwhile, 0:05:35.760 --> 0:05:38.880 Scott Kelly attended the State University of New York and 0:05:38.920 --> 0:05:42.560 received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. He also pursued 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:45.320 post graduate degrees. He got a master's degree in aviation 0:05:45.320 --> 0:05:47.960 systems from the University of Tennessee. And they would both 0:05:47.960 --> 0:05:50.760 wind up being pilots in the Navy YEP. So between 0:05:51.080 --> 0:05:54.320 their initial college and their postgraduate work, they both joined 0:05:54.320 --> 0:05:57.800 the Navy, and they both became pilots. Scott became a 0:05:57.880 --> 0:06:00.640 pilot in nineteen eighty seven and Mark came a pilot 0:06:00.640 --> 0:06:04.880 in ninety nine, and in they both graduated the U. 0:06:05.000 --> 0:06:08.040 S Navy Test Pilot School. And if you know anything 0:06:08.040 --> 0:06:10.760 about test pilots, and you take a look at where 0:06:10.800 --> 0:06:14.200 a lot of the pilots from the astronaut UH class 0:06:14.360 --> 0:06:17.880 come from, Yeah, the the US Navy Test Pilot School. 0:06:18.240 --> 0:06:23.440 That's a large representation. They tend to have the right stuff. Yeah. Yeah, 0:06:23.600 --> 0:06:26.400 I mean, if you're not a if you're not trying 0:06:26.400 --> 0:06:29.120 to become a top gun, you're trying to become an astronaut. 0:06:29.680 --> 0:06:33.559 So at any rate. In nineteen they also both began 0:06:33.720 --> 0:06:37.840 training to become astronauts, So Scott Kelly was the first 0:06:37.839 --> 0:06:40.159 one to go into space, becoming the pilot for the 0:06:40.200 --> 0:06:43.960 Space Shuttle mission STS one oh three. That's a good one. 0:06:44.279 --> 0:06:46.200 It was the Discovery. It was a good one. This 0:06:46.320 --> 0:06:49.640 was the mission sent up to make repairs to a 0:06:49.720 --> 0:06:53.360 very important piece of equipment in orbit, the Hubble space telescope. Yeah. 0:06:53.480 --> 0:06:56.640 If you recall, the Hubble had a couple of problems 0:06:56.680 --> 0:07:00.440 that needed to be adjusted after Yes, now I could 0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:03.719 be wrong about this, but I believe that that is 0:07:03.839 --> 0:07:09.159 the farthest anybody has gone from Earth since the Moon, 0:07:10.200 --> 0:07:12.920 since the last Moon mission would have been this would 0:07:12.920 --> 0:07:15.720 have been the mission to repair the Hubble. That sounds 0:07:15.760 --> 0:07:18.760 correct to me. I don't happen to know that because 0:07:18.760 --> 0:07:21.960 the hubbles in a higher orbit space then yes, exactly, 0:07:22.000 --> 0:07:24.360 the International Space stations at a lower orbit. I think 0:07:24.400 --> 0:07:28.760 you're correct. So here's hoping if we're wrong, people will 0:07:28.840 --> 0:07:31.800 let us know. At any rate. Mark would then get 0:07:31.880 --> 0:07:34.840 his first chance to go into space in two thousand one, 0:07:34.920 --> 0:07:37.080 so a few years after Scott had gone up and 0:07:37.120 --> 0:07:40.840 Mark piloted the Endeavor for mission STS one oh eight, 0:07:41.240 --> 0:07:44.720 which brought astronauts up to the International Space Station, and 0:07:44.800 --> 0:07:49.480 both brothers flew on and commanded several other missions to space. 0:07:49.560 --> 0:07:52.840 They both were involved in them, never together, but they 0:07:52.920 --> 0:07:56.640 both were working in on various missions throughout the years. 0:07:56.680 --> 0:07:59.040 At one point they were actually going to be the 0:07:59.080 --> 0:08:03.080 first siblings to be in space at the same time. 0:08:03.760 --> 0:08:07.320 They were going to both be Scott I think, was 0:08:07.320 --> 0:08:09.760 going to be up on the International Space Station. Mark 0:08:09.960 --> 0:08:13.920 was going to command a launch, a launch and launch 0:08:13.960 --> 0:08:15.600 into space, so they would both be in space at 0:08:15.600 --> 0:08:19.800 the same time. But uh, various delays pushed back the 0:08:19.880 --> 0:08:24.320 launch for um for Mark's mission to further back in 0:08:24.600 --> 0:08:28.240 two thousand and eleven, and it pushed it beyond the 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:31.640 time when Scott was returning from the International Space Station. 0:08:32.000 --> 0:08:34.959 Uh and and Mark wound up retiring out of the 0:08:35.040 --> 0:08:39.080 astronaut business. Yeah, he did so because of a truly 0:08:39.320 --> 0:08:44.079 terrible moment in US history, one that I'm sure a 0:08:44.120 --> 0:08:47.320 lot of our listeners will remember. So he almost didn't 0:08:47.360 --> 0:08:50.280 go on this, this two thousand eleven mission at all 0:08:50.320 --> 0:08:54.240 after the delay because his wife, Gabrielle Gifford's, who was 0:08:54.280 --> 0:08:56.920 a representative for the state of Arizona in the House 0:08:56.960 --> 0:08:59.280 of Representatives here in the United States. Was one of 0:08:59.280 --> 0:09:02.319 the victims of mass shooting. She was having a meeting 0:09:02.360 --> 0:09:06.000 with constituents and a parking lot at a supermarket and 0:09:06.440 --> 0:09:10.120 uh a man open fired into the crowd, killing a 0:09:10.160 --> 0:09:15.880 few people and hitting Gifford's in the head. She survived 0:09:15.960 --> 0:09:20.079 and made a remarkable recovery. Everyone talked about how amazing 0:09:20.120 --> 0:09:23.800 it was that she was able to recover so quickly. Yeah. Yeah, 0:09:23.960 --> 0:09:26.560 Although after after he did return from that mission, he 0:09:26.559 --> 0:09:29.320 he wound up retiring in order to help her with 0:09:29.400 --> 0:09:32.240 her continued recovery. Yes, she actually was able to attend 0:09:32.320 --> 0:09:35.720 the launch of his mission. She was able to recover 0:09:35.840 --> 0:09:38.080 enough to be there for that. And then a few 0:09:38.120 --> 0:09:41.319 months after he returned from his mission, he said, I'm 0:09:41.360 --> 0:09:44.400 leaving the Navy, I'm leaving the the Space program, and 0:09:44.440 --> 0:09:46.800 I'm going to be with my wife. So that was 0:09:46.960 --> 0:09:51.000 at that point. Mark ends up retiring from the space program. 0:09:51.040 --> 0:09:54.640 But that doesn't mean he has to be done helping 0:09:54.640 --> 0:09:57.679 with space research. That is correct, he can do. He 0:09:57.720 --> 0:10:00.840 actually is helping with space research by not going into space. 0:10:01.120 --> 0:10:04.959 He's the control twin. So how does the twin study work? 0:10:05.400 --> 0:10:09.720 It was part of another project, the one year mission, 0:10:10.200 --> 0:10:12.840 which is a little bit of a misnomer. Uh. There 0:10:12.840 --> 0:10:15.760 were two people who were part of this. One was 0:10:15.800 --> 0:10:21.000 Scott Kelly and the other was a Russian cosmonaut, and 0:10:21.440 --> 0:10:24.200 the idea was to send these two people up into 0:10:24.240 --> 0:10:28.600 space for three forty days. That's not exactly a year, 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:33.280 which is that's why it's a misnomer. Yeah, three days 0:10:33.280 --> 0:10:35.560 and not a full year. But the purpose was to 0:10:35.640 --> 0:10:38.480 study the long term effects of space on the human body, 0:10:38.559 --> 0:10:40.760 as well as a ton of other research projects which 0:10:40.760 --> 0:10:44.679 I'll talk about in a second. So part of this 0:10:44.920 --> 0:10:49.520 is NASA's plan to try and build, uh build a 0:10:49.559 --> 0:10:52.800 path for us to get to Mars, to have human 0:10:53.360 --> 0:10:56.920 explorers go to Mars. Not an easy path, not an 0:10:56.920 --> 0:10:59.360 easy path at all, because, as we've said said in 0:10:59.400 --> 0:11:04.079 previous episodes, NASA's approach to a Martian mission would be 0:11:04.200 --> 0:11:09.760 about thirty months long. And that's partially because getting from 0:11:09.800 --> 0:11:12.960 Earth to Mars takes several months, and getting from Mars 0:11:13.000 --> 0:11:16.040 to Earth back to Earth takes several months. But more importantly, 0:11:17.200 --> 0:11:19.920 in order for you to conserve fuel so that you 0:11:19.960 --> 0:11:22.400 don't have to have as heavy as spacecraft, you have 0:11:22.400 --> 0:11:25.800 a better chance of success. Your mission is slightly less 0:11:25.840 --> 0:11:29.800 horrifyingly expensive. Yeah, and you are also spending the least 0:11:29.840 --> 0:11:32.920 amount of time in the most dangerous of the environments. 0:11:32.920 --> 0:11:35.640 Not that we remember, Mars is trying to kill you too, 0:11:36.280 --> 0:11:38.000 it's just not trying to kill you as hard as 0:11:38.040 --> 0:11:41.360 space is. You can dig a hole on Mars and 0:11:41.400 --> 0:11:43.680 that's that's a little bit better than being in space. 0:11:43.800 --> 0:11:47.200 So also Mars has a little bit of gravity. Yes, 0:11:47.440 --> 0:11:50.280 At any rate, the the trip you would want to 0:11:50.400 --> 0:11:55.880 launch your your spacecraft when the orbits of Earth and 0:11:55.960 --> 0:11:58.160 Mars are at their most advantageous, where it's going to 0:11:58.280 --> 0:12:00.880 require the least amount of distance to travel from one 0:12:00.920 --> 0:12:03.200 to the other. And by the time you make that 0:12:03.240 --> 0:12:07.280 trip once the two planets are no longer in that configuration, 0:12:07.360 --> 0:12:09.520 and you're gonna have to wait a significant amount of 0:12:09.520 --> 0:12:11.880 time for them to come back round to that so 0:12:11.920 --> 0:12:15.840 you can make the return trip with that same smaller distance, 0:12:16.400 --> 0:12:19.800 which is why the overall mission would last thirty months. 0:12:20.080 --> 0:12:22.120 In order for us to get there, we have to 0:12:22.200 --> 0:12:26.040 know what are the long term effects of space on 0:12:26.080 --> 0:12:28.600 the human body, so that we can make sure that 0:12:28.640 --> 0:12:32.119 the people we send there have the best chance for success. 0:12:32.640 --> 0:12:36.600 And and we're not going to put people's lives in danger. Uh, 0:12:36.880 --> 0:12:40.280 because or not at least not more danger than the 0:12:40.400 --> 0:12:43.040 otherwise would be just going into space in the first place. 0:12:43.360 --> 0:12:46.959 So very important type of mission. So at any rate, 0:12:47.000 --> 0:12:51.240 the two went up, Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko. Uh. 0:12:51.520 --> 0:12:55.400 This was they were representing a joint operation between the 0:12:55.440 --> 0:12:59.600 Russian Space Program and NASA, and the idea is that 0:12:59.640 --> 0:13:02.959 they're going to share all information and results with one 0:13:03.000 --> 0:13:07.160 another to benefit mankind. Uh, in an effort to get 0:13:07.200 --> 0:13:11.160 to Mars and beyond in the future. Yeah. And this 0:13:11.240 --> 0:13:13.280 is the longest that anyone has been up for a 0:13:13.400 --> 0:13:17.920 NASA mission, but not for a Russian mission. Yeah. So 0:13:18.480 --> 0:13:23.719 there's a cosmonaut named Valerie Polyakov who spent nearly four 0:13:23.960 --> 0:13:26.280 D thirty eight days. I think technically it's four D 0:13:26.320 --> 0:13:32.320 thirty seven points seven days space aboard the Mere Space 0:13:32.320 --> 0:13:35.720 Station in my r space station, but that obviously was 0:13:35.720 --> 0:13:38.640 not a NASA mission, So that was the longest anyone 0:13:38.760 --> 0:13:42.200 has spent in space. In fact, Uh, Polyakov said upon 0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:46.120 returning that, in his opinion, we could totally go to 0:13:46.160 --> 0:13:52.079 Mars um. Also, there's some great, possibly apocryphal stories about 0:13:52.120 --> 0:13:53.559 some of the things he did. As soon as he 0:13:53.679 --> 0:13:55.959 got out of his space capsule. But that's for another time. 0:13:56.160 --> 0:13:57.800 I'm like, yeah, it was was that statement part of 0:13:57.840 --> 0:14:02.440 the space badness? Or well he he seemed to be 0:14:02.760 --> 0:14:09.080 like about as stereotypical a likely think of your stereotypical 0:14:09.160 --> 0:14:11.720 big bear of a Russian. Those are the kind of 0:14:11.720 --> 0:14:16.360 stories attributed to this guy. Like at any rate? Okay, um, 0:14:16.360 --> 0:14:20.000 so so what so what specifically? Uh? Was a study 0:14:20.280 --> 0:14:23.160 trying to look for Well, it's part of NASA's Human 0:14:23.200 --> 0:14:26.800 Research Program or HRP, and some of it was just 0:14:26.920 --> 0:14:29.880 really basic stuff like how do you provide for the 0:14:30.000 --> 0:14:34.600 long term nutrition of astronauts going out into deep space? 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:37.800 Because for shorter missions it's not I mean, obviously you 0:14:37.800 --> 0:14:40.560 want them to have enough calories and the right nutrients 0:14:40.600 --> 0:14:42.920 to be able to do their job, but you're not 0:14:43.000 --> 0:14:46.120 thinking necessarily for long term people. You know a lot 0:14:46.120 --> 0:14:48.640 of like the spatial missions lasted about a week to 0:14:48.720 --> 0:14:50.880 ten days, so you didn't have to worry about that much. 0:14:51.120 --> 0:14:53.440 When you're talking about long term, you guys start thinking 0:14:53.440 --> 0:14:57.880 about other stuff that can set in, like scurvy, So 0:14:57.960 --> 0:14:59.600 you actually have to sit there and think, all right, well, 0:14:59.640 --> 0:15:01.600 how do we make sure that they get enough vitamin 0:15:01.640 --> 0:15:04.680 C so that they are not going to be prone discurvy, 0:15:04.720 --> 0:15:07.080 that sort of stuff. They also wanted to study things 0:15:07.120 --> 0:15:10.440 like fluid redistribution in space, I mean fluid within the 0:15:10.520 --> 0:15:13.960 human body. We've talked about that, Joe. I remember when 0:15:14.000 --> 0:15:17.080 we talked about space foods. You talked about how a 0:15:17.080 --> 0:15:20.120 lot of people like the spicy shrimp cocktail partially because 0:15:20.840 --> 0:15:23.720 the fluid redistribution makes you feel kind of like you're 0:15:23.760 --> 0:15:25.800 congested and have a cold, and so it's hard to 0:15:25.840 --> 0:15:30.040 smell and taste things. So they wanted to study that 0:15:30.080 --> 0:15:33.280 into in greater detail and see if there were ways 0:15:33.320 --> 0:15:37.720 of of of working with that. How how dangerous could 0:15:37.720 --> 0:15:39.960 it be? Could it actually impact things like your vision 0:15:40.080 --> 0:15:44.160 over time? That's really important stuff to know. Everything does 0:15:44.200 --> 0:15:46.800 impact your vision right now, Yeah, because of the aforementioned 0:15:46.800 --> 0:15:50.680 eyeball reshaping. Right. So they also wanted to find out 0:15:50.680 --> 0:15:54.640 ways to ward off stress and fatigue. Obviously, morale is 0:15:54.640 --> 0:15:58.000 going to be a very important thing for long distance missions, 0:15:58.000 --> 0:16:02.000 where you're going to be feeling increased sense of isolation 0:16:02.200 --> 0:16:05.920 from everybody who isn't on your crew. Uh, you're gonna 0:16:05.920 --> 0:16:08.160 feel the opposite of that for everyone who is on 0:16:08.200 --> 0:16:12.040 your crew. Because, as Scott Kelly has said, it's it's 0:16:12.080 --> 0:16:14.960 tricky to find a way to fall asleep on these 0:16:15.000 --> 0:16:18.200 missions because you're so close to everyone else if they 0:16:18.320 --> 0:16:21.360 have to be, if they're on a task and you 0:16:21.400 --> 0:16:24.440 have a sleep shift, being able to sleep next to 0:16:24.480 --> 0:16:27.200 someone who's working is challenging. So you have to design 0:16:27.240 --> 0:16:30.120 your spacecraft in such a way to try and limit 0:16:30.200 --> 0:16:33.280 the kind of noise and other interference you might encounter 0:16:33.560 --> 0:16:35.600 while someone else is trying to do his or her job. 0:16:36.040 --> 0:16:38.240 So the things that I wouldn't have even really thought about, 0:16:38.400 --> 0:16:40.880 like oh, yeah, I guess you know, that could be 0:16:41.000 --> 0:16:44.440 a huge impact on your mental and physical health over 0:16:44.480 --> 0:16:47.760 the long term. So they wanted to look into that 0:16:47.800 --> 0:16:51.080 as well, and uh, they did tons of other science 0:16:51.320 --> 0:16:56.240 besides the various impact on the bodies. They actually did 0:16:56.280 --> 0:17:00.360 four d fifty different investigations aboard the International Space Station 0:17:00.840 --> 0:17:05.120 over that three days stay, and only eighteen of those 0:17:05.119 --> 0:17:09.399 four fifty were actually about human reactions and functions. Everything 0:17:09.440 --> 0:17:13.159 else was various exploratory science, like what happens when you 0:17:13.200 --> 0:17:17.959 put worms in space? You get what does happen? Dune happened. 0:17:18.560 --> 0:17:20.680 It didn't really get a lot of coverage, but I'm 0:17:20.720 --> 0:17:25.000 pretty sure the thing I made up happened. Wait a minute, 0:17:25.000 --> 0:17:28.640 you made up dune. You're Frank Herbert. Look, I don't 0:17:28.680 --> 0:17:31.200 like to toot my own horn, especially when I'm lying 0:17:31.600 --> 0:17:36.360 like crazy. So let's just move on with the twin study. Okay, excellent. 0:17:36.800 --> 0:17:39.960 What about that twin study? So this was the more 0:17:40.000 --> 0:17:44.199 specific study that was encapsulated in that one year mission, right, 0:17:44.320 --> 0:17:47.280 the idea being that, hey, we've got an identical twin 0:17:47.359 --> 0:17:53.640 here on Earth who must face unrelated to anything else 0:17:53.680 --> 0:17:55.639 that I've lied about so far. Now we have this 0:17:55.720 --> 0:17:59.119 one uh one guy on Earth and his identical twins 0:17:59.119 --> 0:18:01.680 in space. So we and compare the two. We can 0:18:01.760 --> 0:18:05.120 do a whole bunch of different measurements before the mission, 0:18:05.680 --> 0:18:08.159 We can monitor people throughout the mission, we can do 0:18:08.200 --> 0:18:11.760 a bunch of studies after the mission is over. Compare 0:18:11.760 --> 0:18:15.320 and contrast the two and figure out what if any 0:18:15.600 --> 0:18:20.560 variables we can eliminate from certain outcomes. Are there certain 0:18:20.560 --> 0:18:23.439 things that we can be fairly certain are due to 0:18:23.800 --> 0:18:28.720 the exposure to the microgravity environment being on the International 0:18:28.760 --> 0:18:32.000 Space Station for three forty days. Are there somewhere we 0:18:32.080 --> 0:18:36.040 can't be absolutely certain, or you know, in science, nothing 0:18:36.119 --> 0:18:38.879 is ever an absolute certainty, but which ones do we 0:18:38.920 --> 0:18:42.600 feel very strongly about versus which ones our possibility, but 0:18:42.640 --> 0:18:45.159 we don't have enough information to really make a determination 0:18:45.200 --> 0:18:49.720 that kind of stuff. So it involves ten investigation teams 0:18:50.040 --> 0:18:52.680 who are all working together to look at the differences 0:18:52.720 --> 0:18:56.560 between the two twins, And these ten teams are sharing 0:18:56.640 --> 0:18:59.840 all their work with one another, and their findings create 0:19:00.160 --> 0:19:03.760 integrated studies. So it's kind of like an integrated study 0:19:03.800 --> 0:19:08.320 with ten many studies inside it, many being M I 0:19:08.600 --> 0:19:12.840 N I, although each one is actually pretty impressive and exhaustive. 0:19:13.520 --> 0:19:15.960 Um so, because the twins share the same genes, the 0:19:16.000 --> 0:19:18.160 hope is that the investigations will give us those insights 0:19:18.200 --> 0:19:21.480 as to the real effects of space. So those ten 0:19:21.600 --> 0:19:26.119 investigations fall into four broad categories. Uh. The first is 0:19:26.200 --> 0:19:29.360 human physiology, So how does space affect the various tissues 0:19:29.359 --> 0:19:31.919 and organs of the human body, including the heart, the brain, 0:19:32.080 --> 0:19:36.680 and your muscles. Then you have behavioral health. How does 0:19:36.720 --> 0:19:39.399 being in space for a year affect a person's ability 0:19:39.440 --> 0:19:42.480 to reason and to make decisions? How does it affect 0:19:42.520 --> 0:19:46.720 that person's perception and alertness? Does this include testing the 0:19:46.880 --> 0:19:50.600 ingestion of spice? I never should have brought up to 0:19:51.320 --> 0:19:53.640 the third one, especially with me in the room, Jonathan, 0:19:53.680 --> 0:19:57.560 come on, you know me. The third category is microbiology. 0:19:57.680 --> 0:20:01.120 So how did the two different diets that the very 0:20:01.200 --> 0:20:02.960 you know, the guy on Earth and the guy in space, 0:20:03.080 --> 0:20:05.880 how did their diets and the various stressors that they 0:20:05.920 --> 0:20:10.760 experienced throughout that year affect the organisms in their respective guts. This, 0:20:10.760 --> 0:20:13.240 this one is really interesting to me. Yeah, and it's 0:20:13.280 --> 0:20:16.400 especially important because we we keep learning that that your 0:20:16.480 --> 0:20:19.680 microbiome has a lot to do with other bodily processes, 0:20:19.720 --> 0:20:23.359 like like your immune system function and your mental health. Yeah, yeah, 0:20:23.440 --> 0:20:26.520 that that the stuff in your guts can affect whether 0:20:26.640 --> 0:20:28.520 or not, you know, how you're feeling, like not just 0:20:28.560 --> 0:20:30.760 how you're feeling in your stomach, but how you're feeling 0:20:30.840 --> 0:20:33.520 upstairs up in the brain. It's it's kind of it's 0:20:33.600 --> 0:20:35.919 kind of crazy how much we see, you know, how 0:20:36.000 --> 0:20:38.760 big an influence we see down there is. Suddenly going 0:20:38.760 --> 0:20:42.399 with your gut has a much stronger implication than did before. 0:20:43.119 --> 0:20:46.080 And then the fourth category is molecular and oh mix 0:20:46.240 --> 0:20:50.439 on a genetic level, what effect does space have on 0:20:50.480 --> 0:20:53.919 a person? Which genes switch on or off in space 0:20:54.000 --> 0:20:58.600 due to various stressors? Everything from microgravity to radiation exposure 0:20:58.640 --> 0:21:01.720 to just the sense of isolated shouldn't and how much 0:21:01.800 --> 0:21:04.280 of that does that change in other ways, like what 0:21:04.400 --> 0:21:07.920 sort of proteins and metabolites are in the body. UM. 0:21:08.080 --> 0:21:10.680 Usually you would find that out through collecting various samples 0:21:10.720 --> 0:21:13.320 like urine and sweat and blood, that kind of thing. 0:21:13.880 --> 0:21:16.959 There's also a related question here about whether time and 0:21:17.000 --> 0:21:20.720 space ages you faster. Uh and and this is due 0:21:20.760 --> 0:21:24.120 to recent research that's pointed out the length of your 0:21:24.160 --> 0:21:26.880 telomeres as an indicator of your health and your youth. 0:21:27.040 --> 0:21:29.679 Telomeres being sort of like like caps on the end 0:21:29.680 --> 0:21:31.359 of our chromosomes. I think we've talked about them on 0:21:31.359 --> 0:21:33.920 the show before. They sort of protect our DNA from 0:21:33.920 --> 0:21:38.400 deterioration and other wiggy stuff disease issues, stuff like that. 0:21:38.680 --> 0:21:42.399 UM and space radiation could potentially affect your telomeres, So 0:21:42.440 --> 0:21:43.600 that's one of the things that they're going to be 0:21:43.600 --> 0:21:45.879 looking at UM. But they're they're also going to do 0:21:45.880 --> 0:21:48.480 like a like a whole genome analysis, which is just 0:21:48.560 --> 0:21:51.120 so nerdy and terrific. I'm really excited about pretty cool. 0:21:51.200 --> 0:21:53.600 I I will be very curious to hear about the 0:21:53.640 --> 0:21:57.920 differences between the two genomes once this is all done. Yeah. Uh, 0:21:58.000 --> 0:22:02.280 So each individual investigation under those four categories, all of 0:22:02.320 --> 0:22:06.480 them have really long technical names, so I thought going 0:22:06.520 --> 0:22:08.959 through all of them would at some point you just 0:22:08.960 --> 0:22:11.720 started to tune out because you're hit hearing a lot 0:22:11.760 --> 0:22:17.000 of technical words. But here's an example. Uh, Proteomic assessment 0:22:17.040 --> 0:22:20.960 of fluid shifts and association with visual impairment and intracranial 0:22:21.040 --> 0:22:25.520 pressure and twin astronauts. That's rolls off the tongue. Uh. 0:22:25.560 --> 0:22:27.679 These are very important studies, but like I said, if 0:22:27.720 --> 0:22:29.720 I were to list all of them by name, I'd 0:22:29.720 --> 0:22:32.600