Identical twin astronauts say UAE is ideally suited to build a city on Mars
History-making astronaut twins Scott and Mark Kelly may have been born just minutes apart, but they did not inhabit the same planet for a whole year.
The two were both US Navy captains who flew on the Endeavour and Discovery space shuttles, and spent time aboard the International Space Station.
They also broke new ground by taking part in the Twins Study, which investigated the effects of space travel on the human body.
While Scott jetted off into space for an entire year, his identical twin was grounded on planet Earth.
The pair agreed to the mission to help to push the boundaries of scientific discovery further, and it is an ambitious spirit they see mirrored here in the UAE.
The siblings shared their story at a lecture titled The Sky is not the Limit: Life Lessons from Nasa’s Kelly Brothers, at the Ramadan Majlis of Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces.
The lecture was attended by Sheikh Mohammed, Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed, Ruler’s Representative in Al Dhafra Region, and other dignitaries.
Scott, who struggled at school, said he was inspired to become “something greater” and believes that the UAE is also on the verge of boldly going where no one has gone before.
The Emirates is launching the region’s first mission to Mars in 2021 and Scott believes the country is capable of building a city on the Red Planet.
“When I was looking through the UAE Mars plan and thinking back to when I visited in the late 1990s, and how much your country has changed, I thought the perfect people to be involved in building a city on Mars would be the people who built this incredible city here in a very challenging environment,” said Scott, who has penned a New York Times bestseller on his life in space.
Mark said: “We visited the space centre where the satellite will be put together. I think this is an exciting time for your country to be building a satellite from the ground.”
The brothers said reaching for the stars will also have a huge effect on the UAE’s economic development. “It is great training for the engineers who will work on that technology,” Mark said. “Space technology is the most sophisticated type of technology that we do. And don’t underestimate how it motivates young people in science and maths. Those are really the drivers of highly complex economies.”
The UAE has long been looking for ways to involve more young people in science and to encourage them to choose scientific majors in university.
Scott spent 340 days on the International Space Station in 2015 for the Nasa Twins Study, which compared his health and physical changes with Mark, who stayed on Earth. The goal was to find out more about the physiological changes astronauts experience.
The study found Scott’s DNA did not fundamentally change after a year in space. But 7 per cent of his gene expression, which is how our body reacts to the environment, altered from its pre-flight levels. Nasa said the change was “very minimal”.
On their expeditions, the twins carried out dozens of advanced scientific research, including bone cancer studies.
“Science that we do in space today becomes tomorrow’s technology. That is how important it is,” Scott said.
Mark said: “But you’ve got to get there to do that and getting there is the really hard part. It is a crazy ride into space. It is wild, it is dangerous, you feel incredible acceleration. And the best things about it is that it is the most fun you have ever had in your life. Incredibly exciting, there is nothing like it.”
The perfect people to be involved in building a city on Mars would be the people who built this incredible city here
SCOTT KELLY
Nasa astronaut