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The ISS year-long mission was an 11-month-long scientific research project aboard the
International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ...
, which studied the
health effects Health effects (or health impacts) are changes in health resulting from exposure to a source. Health effects are an important consideration in many areas, such as hygiene, pollution studies, occupational safety and health, ( utrition and health sc ...
of long-term spaceflight. Astronaut Scott Kelly (ideally suited for the experiment as the
identical twin Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of TwinLast Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two em ...
of
Mark Kelly Mark Edward Kelly (born February 21, 1964) is an American politician, former astronaut, and United States Navy captain who has served as the junior United States senator from Arizona since 2020. A member of the Democratic Party, he was electe ...
) and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko spent 340 days in space, with scientists performing medical experiments. Kelly and Kornienko launched on 27 March 2015 on
Soyuz TMA-16M Soyuz TMA-16M was a 2015 flight to the International Space Station.Gennady Padalka Gennady Ivanovich Padalka (russian: Гeннадий Иванович Падалка; born 21 June 1958 in Krasnodar, Soviet Union) is a Russian Air Force officer and a Roscosmos cosmonaut. Padalka currently holds the world record for List of spac ...
. The mission encompassed Expeditions 43, 44, 45 and 46. The pair safely landed in
Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
on March 2, 2016, returning aboard
Soyuz TMA-18M Soyuz TMA-18M was a 2015 Soyuz (spacecraft), Soyuz spaceflight to the International Space Station. It provided the two twelve-months occupants (Scott Kelly (astronaut), Scott Kelly and Mikhail Korniyenko) at the International Space Station with a ...
with Sergey Volkov. The mission supported the NASA Twins study, which helps shed light on the health effects of
long-duration spaceflight Selection, training, cohesion and psychosocial adaptation influence performance and, as such, are relevant factors to consider while preparing for costly, long-duration spaceflight missions in which the performance objectives will be demanding, endu ...
, which is of interest for Mars missions especially. On 12 April 2019, NASA reported medical results from the NASA Twins Study which demonstrated several long-lasting changes, including those related to alterations in DNA and
cognition Cognition refers to "the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses". It encompasses all aspects of intellectual functions and processes such as: perception, attention, thought, ...
, when one twin was compared with the other.


Selection

In November 2012,
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
, the
Russian Federal Space Agency The State Space Corporation "Roscosmos" (russian: Государственная корпорация по космической деятельности «Роскосмос»), commonly known simply as Roscosmos (russian: Роскосмос) ...
(Roscosmos), and their international partners selected two veteran spacefarers for a one-year mission aboard the International Space Station in 2015. The mission included collecting scientific data important to future human exploration of the Solar System. Kelly and Korniyenko already had an indirect connection: Kelly was a backup crew member for the station's
Expedition 23 Expedition 23 (russian: МКС-23) was the 23rd long-duration mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Expedition 23 began with the Soyuz TMA-16 undocking on 18 March 2010. Shortly thereafter cosmonauts Aleksandr Skvortsov and Mikhail Ko ...
/ 24 crews, where Korniyenko served as a flight engineer. The goal aboard the orbiting laboratory was to understand better how the human body reacts and adapts to the harsh environment of space. Data from the mission was used to improve assessments of crew performance and health. They worked to develop and validate better countermeasures against the risks associated with future missions around the
Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...
,
asteroids An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...
and ultimately
Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...
.


Results

On 12 April 2019, NASA reported medical results, from the NASA Twins study, which demonstrated several long-lasting changes, including those related to alterations in DNA and
cognition Cognition refers to "the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses". It encompasses all aspects of intellectual functions and processes such as: perception, attention, thought, ...
, when one twin was compared with the other. The study also required the astronauts to keep a journal, and investigated the psychological effects of living in a confined space for an extended length of time. Kornienko said of his experiences on Expedition 23/24: "The thing you miss there most of all is the Earth itself, I missed smells. I missed trees, I even dreamt of them. I even hallucinated. I thought I smelled a real fire and something being barbecued on it! I ended up putting pictures of trees on the walls to cheer up. You do miss the Earth there." Scott stated that he missed feeling changes in the weather while on the ISS.


NASA Twin Study

Identical twins Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of TwinLast Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two em ...
Mark Kelly Mark Edward Kelly (born February 21, 1964) is an American politician, former astronaut, and United States Navy captain who has served as the junior United States senator from Arizona since 2020. A member of the Democratic Party, he was electe ...
and Scott Kelly were studied for changes in the health of a body in space compared to a body on earth. A variety of mechanisms in the human body were analyzed, notably
telomere A telomere (; ) is a region of repetitive nucleotide sequences associated with specialized proteins at the ends of linear chromosomes. Although there are different architectures, telomeres, in a broad sense, are a widespread genetic feature mos ...
length, body mass, eye and bone deformation, and immune response. The study found no significant changes in
T cell A T cell is a type of lymphocyte. T cells are one of the important white blood cells of the immune system and play a central role in the adaptive immune response. T cells can be distinguished from other lymphocytes by the presence of a T-cell r ...
production after the first
vaccination Vaccination is the administration of a vaccine to help the immune system develop immunity from a disease. Vaccines contain a microorganism or virus in a weakened, live or killed state, or proteins or toxins from the organism. In stimulating ...
of the study, nor changes in some other mechanisms, but did find: "significant changes in multiple data types were observed in association with the spaceflight period; the majority of these eventually returned to a preflight state within the time period of the study. These included changes in telomere length, gene regulation measured in both
epigenetic In biology, epigenetics is the study of stable phenotypic changes (known as ''marks'') that do not involve alterations in the DNA sequence. The Greek prefix '' epi-'' ( "over, outside of, around") in ''epigenetics'' implies features that are "o ...
and transcriptional data,
gut microbiome Gut microbiota, gut microbiome, or gut flora, are the microorganisms, including bacteria, archaea, fungi, and viruses that live in the digestive tracts of animals. The gastrointestinal metagenome is the aggregate of all the genomes of the gut mic ...
composition, body weight,
carotid artery Carotid artery may refer to: * Common carotid artery, often "carotids" or "carotid", an artery on each side of the neck which divides into the external carotid artery and internal carotid artery * External carotid artery, an artery on each side of t ...
dimensions, subfoveal
choroidal The choroid, also known as the choroidea or choroid coat, is a part of the uvea, the vascular layer of the eye, and contains connective tissues, and lies between the retina and the sclera. The human choroid is thickest at the far extreme rear ...
thickness and peripapillary total
retina The retina (from la, rete "net") is the innermost, light-sensitive layer of tissue of the eye of most vertebrates and some molluscs. The optics of the eye create a focused two-dimensional image of the visual world on the retina, which then ...
l thickness, and serum
metabolite In biochemistry, a metabolite is an intermediate or end product of metabolism. The term is usually used for small molecules. Metabolites have various functions, including fuel, structure, signaling, stimulatory and inhibitory effects on enzymes, c ...
s. In addition, some factors were significantly affected by the stress of returning to Earth, including inflammation cytokines and immune response gene networks, as well as cognitive performance. For a few measures, persistent changes were observed even after 6 months on Earth, including some genes’ expression levels, increased DNA damage from
chromosomal inversion An inversion is a chromosome rearrangement in which a segment of a chromosome becomes inverted within its original position. An inversion occurs when a chromosome undergoes a two breaks within the chromosomal arm, and the segment between the two br ...
s, increased numbers of short telomeres, and attenuated cognitive function."


Effect of spaceflight on the human body

The International Space Station developed exercise equipment, including
treadmills A treadmill is a device generally used for walking, running, or climbing while staying in the same place. Treadmills were introduced before the development of powered machines to harness the power of animals or humans to do work, often a type of ...
and resistance devices to limit
muscle atrophy Muscle atrophy is the loss of skeletal muscle mass. It can be caused by immobility, aging, malnutrition, medications, or a wide range of injuries or diseases that impact the musculoskeletal or nervous system. Muscle atrophy leads to muscle weakness ...
in a
low gravity Weightlessness is the complete or near-complete absence of the sensation of weight. It is also termed zero gravity, zero G-force, or zero-G. Weight is a measurement of the force on an object at rest in a relatively strong gravitational fie ...
environment. Weightlessness causes body fluids in astronauts to accumulate in the upper half of the body, leading to facial
edema Edema, also spelled oedema, and also known as fluid retention, dropsy, hydropsy and swelling, is the build-up of fluid in the body's Tissue (biology), tissue. Most commonly, the legs or arms are affected. Symptoms may include skin which feels t ...
and unwelcome side effects. One problem may be the low gravity affecting the body in unforeseen ways and it can be hard to detect the cause and effect of gravity on the body. Space seems to cause trouble for a number of body parts including bone, sometimes the eyes, and a classic problem is
space sickness Space adaptation syndrome (SAS) or space sickness is a condition experienced by as many as half of all space travelers during their adaptation to weightlessness once in orbit. It is the opposite of terrestrial motion sickness since it occurs whe ...
.


Longest time spent in space by other astronauts

Vladimir Titov Vladimir Georgiyevich Titov (russian: Владимир Георгиевич Титов; born 1 January 1947 in Sretensk, Zabaykalsky Krai, Russia) is a retired Russian Air Force Colonel and former cosmonaut. He has participated in four spacefli ...
and
Musa Manarov Musa Khiramanovich Manarov ( lbe, Муса Хираманович Манаров; born March 22, 1951, in Baku, Azerbaijan SSR) is a former cosmonaut who spent 541 days in space. He was a colonel in the Soviet Air Force and graduated from the Mos ...
spent 365 days in space on
Mir ''Mir'' (russian: Мир, ; ) was a space station that operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, operated by the Soviet Union and later by Russia. ''Mir'' was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to&n ...
from December 1987 to December 1988.
Valeri Polyakov Valeri Vladimirovich Polyakov (russian: Валерий Владимирович Поляков, born Valeri Ivanovich Korshunov, russian: Валерий Иванович Коршунов, 27 April 1942 – 7 September 2022) was a Soviet and Rus ...
spent 437 days on Mir in 1994-1995 and
Sergei Avdeyev Sergei Vasilyevich Avdeyev (Сергей Васильевич Авдеев; born 1 January 1956) is a Russian engineer and cosmonaut. Avdeyev was born in Chapayevsk, Samara Oblast (formerly Kuybyshev Oblast), Russian SFSR. He graduated from Mos ...
spent 379 days on Mir in 1998-1999. Prior to the Year Long Mission, the longest mission on the ISS was 215 days, by
Mikhail Tyurin Mikhail Vladislavovich Tyurin (russian: Михаил Владиславович Тюрин; born March 2, 1960) is a former Russian cosmonaut who flew several missions to the International Space Station and completed four spacewalks during his ca ...
and
Michael López-Alegría Michael López-Alegría (born Miguel Eladio López Alegría on May 30, 1958) is an astronaut, test pilot and commercial astronaut with dual nationality, American and Spanish; a veteran of three Space Shuttle missions and one International Space ...
.
Christina Hammock Koch Christina Hammock Koch ( ; born January 29, 1979) is an American engineer and NASA astronaut of the class of 2013. She received Bachelor of Science degrees in electrical engineering and physics and a Master of Science in electrical engineering a ...
holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman at around 328 days. In March 2022, NASA's
Mark T. Vande Hei Mark Thomas Vande Hei (born November 10, 1966) is a retired United States Army officer and current NASA astronaut who has served as a flight Engineer for Expedition 53, 54, 64, 65, and 66 on the International Space Station. Early life ...
and the russian
Pyotr Dubrov Pyotr Valerievich Dubrov ( rus, Пётр Валерьевич Дубров; born 30 January 1978) is a Russian engineer and cosmonaut selected by Roscosmos in 2012. Early life and education Dubrov was born on 30 January 1978 in Khabarovsk, Rus ...
landed following 355 days in space as part of ISS Expeditions 64/65/66.


See also

*
Scientific research on the International Space Station The International Space Station is a platform for scientific research that requires one or more of the unusual conditions present in low Earth orbit (for example microgravity, ( cosmic) - radiation and extreme temperatures). The primary field ...
*
Timeline of longest spaceflights Timeline of longest spaceflights is a chronology of the longest spaceflights. Many of the first flights set records measured in hours and days, the space station missions of the 1970s and 1980s pushed this to weeks and months, and by the 1990s the ...
*
Spaceflight records Records and firsts in spaceflight are broadly divided into crewed and uncrewed categories. Records involving animal spaceflight have also been noted in earlier experimental flights, typically to establish the feasibility of sending humans to ou ...
*
Human mission to Mars The idea of sending humans to Mars has been the subject of aerospace engineering and scientific studies since the late 1940s as part of the broader exploration of Mars. Some have also considered exploring the Martian moons of Phobos and Deimos. ...


References


External links

{{Commons category, One-Year Crew Mission
One-Year Mission
- NASA
NASA - One-Year Mission Investigators Debut Preliminary Results at NASA Workshop
(January 30, 2017) Expeditions to the International Space Station 2015 in spaceflight 2016 in spaceflight