You may not know who astronauts Scott Kelly and Mark Kelly are by just their names, but they may change the future of spaceflight.

Scott Kelly recently completed a historic Year in Space, spending 340 consecutive days aboard the International Space Station (ISS) to help NASA study how the human body reacts to long-duration spaceflight—a study that will be invaluable in preparing for any missions to Mars.

At the same time, Scott's twin brother, Mark—a retired astronaut who's the veteran of four space shuttle missions—stayed on the ground. During the Year in Space, Scott regularly sent biological samples and measurements back to Earth, far exceeding what is considered normal for ISS missions (usually astronauts have their health closely monitored during flight, but don’t send back samples). The reason? NASA saw the opportunity to study the effects of spaceflight on the human body in a unique way.

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Twins are virtually the same genetically, so by sending one Kelly to space while keeping his twin on the ground, NASA was able to compare the results of the two brothers’ tests and make some extrapolations about what might happen to human bodies during long-term spaceflight. Scott Kelly returned to Earth from the space station last March; now, nearly a year later, we have the preliminary findings from the Twins Study. What will long-term spaceflight do to the human body? We may have some clues in these early results.

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What Does NASA's Twins Study Mean for the Future of Humans in Space?

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