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Two Astronauts Return To Earth After Record 340 Days In ISS (technews.mobi)
An anonymous reader writes: U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian astronaut Mikhail Kornienko returned to Earth Wednesday after spending a year aboard the ISS, conducting experiments for future missions to Mars. Mikhail Kornienko, 55, and Scott Kelly, 52, completed the longest uninterrupted period aboard the ISS since the station was deployed in 2000. Kelly, who has made four trips to the ISS, also breaks the record for cumulative time in space by an American, with 540 days. Kelly and Kornienko performed this mission to study the biological and psychological effects of long stays in space in order to prepare for future missions to Mars in 2030 or sooner. During their stay at the station, both were frequently subjected to medical examination and a battery of tests to study the long-term effects of micro-gravity on the human body.
At this point these space stunts are the equivalent of flagpole sitting.
What was not in TFS and IS important is that Scott's identical twin brother (a retired astronaut himself) remained on Earth all this time. So NASA is doing comparative studies between the two of them. This was no stunt but instead a carefully crafted experiment.
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most long-flight astronauts have some deficit. or maybe it's just a year older which does it.
Short term - loss of bone density, joint malfunction due to lack of use
Can they now even walk without being carried?
How many hours does someone have to exercise daily to make up for lost bone mass?
Long term, who knows...
Is it worth it? ABSOLUTELY
Boah!
I could also carefully craft the same experiment with a twin living in a submarine.
So you have an anti-gravity submarine just lying around somewhere that can be used for these experiments?
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"Kelly, who has made four trips to Isis Space Station, also breaks the record for cumulative time in space by an American, with 540 days."
How is that relevant to anyone?
You said you could do the same experiment in a submarine. So I'm calling you on the part where one of the subjects was in zero G for the duration.
All 7 billion of us will live and die right here.
Seriously? FFS you are questioning fundamental scientific research because it isn't going to produce something tangible right this very minute that is applicable to the entire population of Earth.?
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Let's all give a big "THANK YOU" to Russia for giving us a ride! We apparently can't even do that for ourselves anymore even though we used to send people to the damn MOON regularly. So, yeah, thanks for doing our science and industry for us now so we can sill say we have astronauts.
I am a geek attorney, but not your geek attorney unless you've already retained me. This is not legal advice.
"Your honor, I object." "On what grounds?" "It's devastating to my case!"
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
The same boring, tiresome "research" has been done already.
Umm??? If it was already done then why did they repeat it? I certainly haven't heard of identical twins being tested like this before. Or is there some sort of astronaut pork barrel funding conspiracy I am not aware of?
OK, now what? You're gonna do it again, and again, and again, pretexting "science" when you know very well that you have your bags packed for Mars.
My bags are packed for my 3 hour drive home tomorrow, not for Mars.
Stop being a disingenuous fool. Funny how medical research usually involves animal models, you could get all your precious free-fall science from a mouse model as well. For a lot cheaper.
Yeah medical science uses animal models. But only when it is impractical or impossible or unethical to use humans. And even then animal models are only an approximation to humans. Once the animal model has run its course medical researchers turn to testing humans. So I posit that you are the one being disingenuous in saying that this research could be done cheaper with animals - because eventually they would have to send up a human in order to collect actual human data. In effect they have saved money by skipping a lot of unnecessary animal model approximations.
Oh but then you can't hero-worship Steve Austin, Astronaut, like you had on your grade-school lunch box.
Sorry, Stevo was a bit after my time in grade school. Nice try with the attempted ad-hom, but you failed in your basic research as to who I am.
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Was the brother confined within a control space, so everything aside from microgravity and speed were the same?
Instead of being a pedantic douchenozzle why don't you go and read up on the NASA Twins Study itself and then come back here and report on everything that NASA did wrong?
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There is not any point arguing with the AC if he is too stupid to realise that there is still gravity underwater and it is only infinitesimally changed by water depth... Perhaps he thinks his personal buoyancy will make him weightless when he is inside a sub?
There is not any point arguing with the AC
I dunno, making him jump through hoops is pretty entertaining.
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What flagpole sitter has been in microgravity the whole time? We need to know the effects of long-term exposure.
Oh of course, yes. And how useful is it, never mind how carefully crafted? I could also carefully craft the same experiment with a twin living in a submarine. Who gives a rat's ass?
Yet another reason why I won't miss AC posting on Slashdot when it finally goes.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Such hateful speech from an obvious narrow minded know it all. Go back to your cave or SIT on that flagpole completely taking in ALL OF IT. Wisdom wasted on the people who need it the most. Tragic
Your first link, www.distancetomars.com stated it would only be 150 days. That's doable.
There is no daily flight to the station. It is either 340 days or say 500 days.
"U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian astronaut Mikhail Kornienko" should be "U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko".
btw this is not just me being pedantic.
Four cosmonauts have stayed for 365 days or longer continuously in space during the 1990's. The record for the longest space flight being held by Valeri Polyakov who stayed on the Mir space station from 1994 - 1995. Russian achievements are often obscured because of the uncomparable public involvment by NASA.
See: Ten Longest Space Flights
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Wanda Says:
We used to look up at the sky and wonder at our place in the stars. Now we just look down, and worry about our place in the dirt.
-- Copper, Interstellar (Movie) (2014)
Look, you'll just have to accept that government will spend a small fraction of it's yearly sports subsidy budget on silly passtimes like space exploration that few people care about. I know it's hard to take that your favourite sportsteam will now be unable to hire that new player because of this pandering to nerds, but that's just how it is.
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Look at this list of NASA spinoff technologies that we use right here on Earth, EVERY SINGLE DAY:
https://spinoff.nasa.gov/
And shut the fuck up.
Eat the rich.
"Two Astronauts Return To Earth After Record 340 Days In ISS" A year was 365 days the last time I checked. It's been years since I checked. How many you ask? I don't know because it really depends on what you define a year to be, most of us picked 365, but the summary poster decided 340 was enough. So now I'm going to have to do the math to figure out how old I actually am.
The sample size of two was the deal breaker, for sure.
To me, the most interesting thing about Scott Kelly's 340-day year in space was how public television had the whole thing on the tele last night...when he only just landed yesterday. That was some seriously impressive editing.
I come here for the love
Did he bring the Gorilla suit home with him, or can we look forward to more zero-gee Gorilla appearances?
Which of the 57 states was he from anyway?