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In 2015, NASA's astronaut Scott Kelly embarked with fellow cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko, whom he described as "another mother's Russian brother," and Gennady Padalka for a mission of ## 147 ## ################################################################################## 39, a year at the International Space Station (ISS) to study the effects of space on the human body.
"The idea behind this mission was to learn things that will help us get to Mars one day," Kelly told the Jerusalem Post during his visit to Israel last month.
While he was in the space, he conducted 400 different experiments in biology, chemistry, physics, materials science, combustion science and pharmaceuticals. The group also tested fluid changes in the human body to examine their effects on sight, and many of the crew's blood and urine samples were taken for chemical analysis.
"The first day of the year in space, and I say to myself, man, it's a stupid thing to do. You can not escape, you can not call an Uber, "he joked.
The ISS, he explained, weighs a million pounds. It is the size of a football field or soccer field. Its internal volume is suitable for a five-bedroom house and is equipped with giant solar panels that allow it to draw energy from the sun. to make electricity. In addition, there are complex life support systems onboard that allow astronauts to survive in the harsh conditions of space.
According to Kelly, the idea of being in the space station is to "do science", and some of the scientific experiments are "designed to improve life on Earth". He spent 340 days aboard the ISS before returning to Earth.
For their return, the three men were crammed into a tiny Soyuz capsule that was crossing "like a ball of fire" at a speed of 25,000 kilometers per hour into the Earth's atmosphere. Jokingly, Kelly likened this experience to passing Niagara Falls in a barrel on fire. On landing, he immediately felt sick, his body not being used to the conditions of the Earth.
When he returned home, he began by jumping into the pool of his home in Houston, Texas, eating an apple pie and drinking a beer offered by the then president, Barack Obama, taking a shower for the first time. time in a year, followed by a long nap.
"When we are in space, the human body does not handle it as well. Many bad things happened to us physiologically, psychologically. You lose a bone mass of 1%, "noted Kelly. "If you did not do anything to prevent that, then 100 months later, you will not have any bones left. It also affects our muscle mass, our vision, our immune system. The radiation to which we are exposed in space is very high and can have genetic impacts. "
Subsequent tests revealed a shocking revelation: 7% of Kelly's DNA has been altered in space and has not changed since. Originally, scientists postulated that the telomeres of human DNA would be shortened. In short, the life of a person would be shortened because of his time spent in space because the conditions are harsh and trying. Yet today's scientists do not know what the real effects of the presence of space on the human body would be. However, in Kelly's case, his telomeres and telomerase (sections of the human chromosome related to aging) have become longer, leaving many questions to scientists. Would that extend his life? In their turn, humans would be able to survive a mission on Mars, even if it would take between 200 and 330 days to cover 225 million km. (140 million miles) and reach the red and rocky planet?
During KELLY's first mission in March 1999, he was commissioned to fly the Space Shuttle Discovery to install new instruments and improve systems on the Hubble Space Telescope, spending approximately two weeks in space. .
During his second mission, in 2002, he was commander aboard Space Shuttle Endeavor. There, he tested a system allowing shuttles moored in the International Space Station to connect to the grid power supply. This deployment also lasted about two weeks.
His third mission was aboard a Soyuz capsule with the other cosmonauts Aleksandr Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka, embarked from the cosmodrome of the Russian base Baikonur in Kazakhstan. The expedition lasted about a month and the trio conducted 115 experiments, some of which consisted of performing tests on a water recycling machine, testing zero-gravity heat transfer, as well as testing. 39, a Japanese project analyzing the growth of vegetables in space.
Although Kelly is widely known and respected, he remains humble and remembers that he was not a very good student at school.
"I would be the kid at the back of the class, looking out the window, wondering how on earth I'm going to get out of here," he told the post. He then excelled at the university after finding a book on missions in the space that inspired him.
"I decided that if I could become a better student, I could maybe become a military pilot, maybe a test pilot and maybe even an astronaut someday," he said. declared.
Graduate in Electrical Engineering, he enrolled at the US Naval Academy and passed exhausting exams to become a Marine Pilot before being hired by NASA and to undergo astronaut training at his Houston headquarters.
Kelly's wit and humor helped him survive for long periods of time in an isolated neighborhood of 408 km. (254 miles) above the earth's atmosphere.
He added that looking at the Earth in his only walk in space helped him understand how fragile our planet was, adding that "the situation was different from here." He compared the Earth's atmosphere to a fine contact lens on one eye, noting who protects us and keeps us alive. "
He explained that he was able to see the effects of pollution that never seem to go back. The tropical rainforests of South America and Central America are being reduced by human construction and interference as well as by global warming, he said. .
Finally, he encouraged people instead of hoping to eventually move to Mars one day, to work for the preservation of this planet, because "it's the only one we have."
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