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An Astronaut Is Heading to Space For a Year While NASA Studies His Twin on Earth

The mission is part of an unprecedented study on the effects of long-duration spaceflight on the human body.

​On Friday afternoon, US astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian astronaut Mikhail Kornienko will leave Earth to spend almost a year in the International Space Station.

Most missions to the space station only last around four to six months, but Kelly and Kornienko will spend 342 days off the planet, surpassing the previous record for time spent aboard the space station on a single mission.

The trip is part of an unprecedented study on the effects of long-duration spaceflight on the human body—and while NASA monitors Kelly in space, researchers on earth will also study his identical twin brother Mark, a retired astronaut, on earth. It is the first study to compare two genetically identical humans in these settings, and a collaboration between university, government, and private researchers.

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Researchers hope to study how extended space travel affects astronauts both physically and mentally, and pave the way to longer missions as NASA travels deeper into space. Trips to Mars, for example, could last 500 days or more.

"The one-year expedition will be a focused effort to reach across international and technological boundaries to enhance integrated science on the station," said John Charles, NASA Human Research Program's associate manager for international science, in a statement.

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly (left), and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, pose at NASA's Johnson Space Center. Image: ​NASA/Bill Stafford

Kelly will depart at 3:42 p.m. eastern time with Kornienko and fellow Russian astronaut Gennady Padalka. Kornienko will join Kelly for the full year, while Padalka will stay only up to six months. The trip will make Kelly's cumulative time in space 522 days, surpassing the previous US record of 381 days. Padalka has already spent 710 days in space over the course of his career, and with this mission he will set the new record for most time in space for a human.

Exposure to a zero-gravity environment has a variety of effects on the human body, including bone loss, changes to the eyes, and muscle atrophy. In the study, researchers have divided the effects of spaceflight they will monitor into seven main categories: functional, behavioral health, visual impairment, metabolic, physical performance, microbial, and human factors. They will study these components through physical and psychological examinations as well as samples of blood, saliva, urine and feces.

The twins are also having their genomes sequenced as part of the study, which has sparked privacy concerns and a debate of what will happen if the sequencing uncovers information the twins don't want shared, such as predisposition to disease.

"This is such new territory, we can't anticipate what will happen," Craig Kundrot, deputy chief scientist of the human research program at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas told Nature.

Whether or not the results of the study are released to the public, the data collected will help NASA better understand the human effects of spaceflight, and has big implications for the future of space exploration.

"This is a key stepping stone to ensuring the health of our astronauts as NASA makes its next giant leap for humanity," NASA said.