Daily Archives: February 10, 2017

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 6:02 p.m. CT Feb. 9, 2017

U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly and former astronaut Mark Kelly.(Photo: USA TODAY)

The following editorial appeared in Monday's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Monday, Feb. 6:

When astronaut Scott Kelly returned to Earth after nearly a year on the International Space Station, he was 2 inches taller than his twin brother, astronaut Mark Kelly. When Scott left for the mission, he and his earthbound brother were the same height.

What happened? Scientists at NASA are poring over the data compiled from the Twins Study, information that benchmarks Scott and Mark Kellys genomic and physical markers before and after Scotts yearlong mission on the space station.

So far weve learned that being in space for prolonged periods does have an effect on the chromosomes, bone structure and even the content of the culture in an astronauts gut. Scotts DNA and RNA underwent hundreds of mutations in space that gradually returned to normal once he was back on Earth.

Scott Kelly exhibited declining bone density, but a healing hormone kicked in during his exercise regimen on the space station. Still, his cognitive abilities and muscle dexterity showed signs of having slowed a bit once he returned to Earth.

That will be a factor to consider when astronauts land on Mars after six months traveling through space. Setting up their living environment on the planet will present both physical and mental challenges.

NASAs plans for manned missions to Mars in the 2030s are still in the early stages. The rival civilian space programs that have popped up are shooting for a Mars mission in the early-to-mid-2020s. Whoever gets to Mars first will be better prepared for the challenges of space travel thanks to the Twins Study.

Read or Share this story: http://www.gosanangelo.com/story/opinion/editorials/2017/02/09/kelly-twins-offer-vital-sign-space-travel/97643904/

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Kelly twins offer a vital sign for space travel - San Angelo Standard Times

Dr Shawna Pandya has been leading an interesting life for a while now, but its only recently the citizen scientist has been finding herself in the news. Reports indicate Dr Pandya might be next in line as the third woman of Indian-origin to make her way into space, but things arent exactly as clear as all that. Were going to break it down for you right now.

Dr Shawna Pandya is a 32-year-old general practitioner based in Alberta, Canada. Many reports indicate shes a neurosurgeon, but Dr Pandya herself has stated that, though she trained in neurosurgery for a short period, her medical licence is as a general practitioner. However, medicine isnt her only scientific love, given that she registered for two citizen scientist-astronaut programs (CSA) years ago.

Dr Pandya is part of both Project PoSSUM and the PHEnOM Project, both of which are research projects that dont actually involve going into space. PoSSUM is an acronym for Polar Suborbital Science in the Upper Mesosphere. It involves imaging noctilucent clouds from a high-altitude balloon over Antarctica, as well as later using manned reusable suborbital vehicles to study the fine structures of the clouds during a week-long deployment. And while PoSSUM evolved out of an earlier NASA-funded project to study climate change, its not officially a NASA venture, and instead works in partnership with the Canadian National Research Council.

PHEnOM, on the other hand, stands for Physiological, Health, and Environmental Observations in Microgravity. Its a project by the SeaSpace Exploration & Research Societys SeaSpace Research Institute and focuses on studying the effects of microgravity on humans, including research in biomedical science, pharmacology, and materials science. This project, similar to PoSSUM, is not tied to any space agency like NASA or the ESA, but is instead under the SeaSpace Societys ambit, in the US.

While participants in both these projects are highly qualified individuals in the fields of engineering, research, and medicine, and also receive astronaut training of a sort, the teams never leave Earths gravity entirely. Instead, research is carried out in Earth-bound labs, parabolic aircraft, and eventually commercial suborbital spaceflight vehicles.

Dr Shawna Pandya (L) and crew testing commercial spacesuits in microgravity at the National Research Council. (Ross Lockwood/Facebook)

As you can see once all the information is gathered, Dr Shawna Pandya is a qualified doctor, now a trained citizen scientist-astronaut, and a researcher in her own right. However, this is far from circulating reports that indicate shes joining the ranks of Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams. Dr Pandya herself has indicated that, despite being on the CSA team of the PHEnOM Project, theres still no guarantee of her being onboard the flights into upper altitudes, instead of one of her other crew members.

Yet, even if Dr Pandya may not have the chance to really break free from Earths gravity and experience the final frontier, shes still getting closer to it than most us could dream of, and her teams research will greatly benefit those that do have that chance. That in itself is definitely something worthy of pride, so lets not do her a disservice by muddling her contributions.

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Shawna Pandya clears the air on rumours of space travel - Daily News & Analysis

"Since I was a kid, I loved space, I loved the stars. So this kind of is a realisation of a life-long dream," says Shawna Pandya who is set to become the third Indian-origin woman to travel in space. The 32-year-old will undertake the expedition with eight others in 2018.

A neurologist by profession, Pandya works as a general physician at the Alberta University Hospital in Canada. On her expedition, she will be conducting experiments with bio-science and medical science, as well as studying the effects of microgravity on health and physiology. She will also study climate change as a part of the Polar Suborbital Science in the Upper Mesosphere (PoSSUM) project.

The Mumbai-born Canadian doctor is one of the two candidates selected from 32,000 people under the Citizen Science Astronaut programme. "All my junior high science projects or reports, they were all space related ... I think the idea of doing something that's so adventurous and really pushes the bounds of exploration, and the fact that you'd get to space really, really resonated with me," Pandya told CBS.

So, after she earned a B.Sc. in Neuroscience, she went on to do her post graduation in space sciences from the International Space University. She then pursued her MD in Medicine from the University of Alberta.

It isn't just her academic record that impressive. Pandya is an international taekwon-do champion and Hindustan Times reports that she trained with a Navy SEAL in Muay Thai. According to a report in the Indian Express, she is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and has even walked the runway as a model. Add to that her fluency in Russian, French and Spanish.

It seems that space exploration is not the only thing on this brilliant young woman's mind. She is also an integral part of the team preparing to undertake a 100-day underwater mission called Project Poseidon, at the Aquarius Space Research Facility in Florida.

Also on HuffPost India

'Indica: A Deep Natural History Of The Indian Subcontinent' Is More Compelling Than Sci-Fi

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Meet Shawn Pandya, The Third Indian-Origin Woman To Space-Travel - Huffington Post India