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When NASA astronaut Scott Kelly launches on a one-year mission to the International Space Station on 28 March, he will also launch an unprecedented study into the biological changes that occur during human spaceflight.
Researchers will gather reams of genomic, molecular, physiological and other data on Kelly and compare it to his Earth-dwelling identical twin, retired astronaut Mark Kelly. Differences between the brothers could reveal how the body copes with extreme environments.
But results from the US$1.5-million twin study may never see the light of day. The Kellys are having their entire genomes sequenced, and if they discover sensitive medical information they do not want shared — such as susceptibility to particular diseases — the results may never be published.
“This is such new territory, we can’t anticipate what will happen,” says Craig Kundrot, deputy chief scientist of the human research programme at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
The twin study is likely to collect more useful data than NASA’s much-hyped monitoring of astronaut John Glenn, who orbited Earth in 1962 and flew again on the space shuttle...