Scott Kelly of NASA (left) and Mikhail Kornienko of Roscosmos on the International Space Station (NASA)
The mission of a human journey to Mars is in our future. NASA’s development of the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft to power such missions is well underway. As long-duration space travel comes closer to reality, NASA is devising protocols and strategies to protect the health of future astronauts in preparation for future missions to Mars.
Helping in this effort is the groundbreaking research currently underway following Scott Kelly’s record-setting 340-day mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS), which ended in March. While in orbit, he participated in tests to detect the genetic effects of spaceflight, with his identical twin brother Mark as the control subject back on Earth.
This evening, Richard Williams, NASA’s chief health and medical officer, introduces a panel of NASA medical experts including Vincent Michaud, deputy chief health and medical officer; Victor Schneider, senior medical adviser; J.D. Polk, senior medical officer; and Saralyn Mark, senior medical adviser on women’s health. Their wide-ranging discussion probes space’s physiological challenges, efforts to ensure astronauts’ health, the benefits of space medicine to Earth’s medical challenges, and an update on research from the ISS, the world’s only microgravity laboratory.
