Long-term spaceflight not linked to major health risks

WASHINGTON: While it was previously thought that long duration spaceflight can affect the human body, even at the molecular level, new results from NASA’s “Twins Study” has showed that there are no major warning signs and no reason to think humans cannot survive a two-and-ahalf-year round-trip journey to Mars. As part of the “Twins Study”, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly spent a year in space while Mark, his identical twin, stayed on Earth as a control subject to look at the effects of space travel on the human body. Spending nearly a year in orbit increased astronaut Kelly’s immune system response, as if, at the cellular level, his body felt under attack as compared to his Earth-bound twin brother.