Welcome to Spotlight Advanced. I'm Bruce Gulland and I'm Liz Wade. Spotlight uses
a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand no
matter where in the world they live. It is twenty fifteen. A rocket
ship stands upright in a large field. The technicians inside have made sure it
is safe, and now a yellow flame begins to glow underneath the rocket.
The ship rises from the ground. Inside, the astronauts prepare themselves for a
difficult ride. The speed of the rocket is pushing them back against their chairs
so that they cannot move. Even the skin on their faces gets pushed back.
But soon the ship passes through the Earth's atmosphere and finally into space.
There is less gravity here, so the astronauts begin to float off their seats.
Only their seat belts hold them back. One of these astronauts is named
Scott Kelly. Soon he and the others will arrive at the International Space Station
or ISS. They are bringing supplies and they will help run the station.
But Kelly's trip is special. Many of the others will be at the station
a few months, but Kelly will be in space for an entire year.
Today's spotlight is on Scott Kelly's year in space and what that might mean for
future space travel. Today, many people have been to space, some have
even lived there longer than Scott Kelly. Valeri Polyakov was a Russian cosmonaut.
He stayed at the ISS for almost fourteen months. But still scientists do not
know much about what happens to a person's body when they go to space.
This is why Scott Kelly is so important. He is an identical twin.
Scott Kelly has a brother named Mark Kelly. They look almost exactly alike.
They are identical, but most importantly, they have the same genes. Scientists
examined the twins before Scott went to space. When he was in space,
Scott sent the scientist's genetic samples, and when he came back, they examined
both twins again. They could then com hair the results. They could compare
scientifically what space did to Scott's body. Space is a very different environment than
Earth, and human bodies are not very used to it. Most of this
has to do with the lack of gravity. Living without gravity would be very
strange for most of us. For example, you cannot drink from a cup
in space. Water will not stay inside water floats in a ball in the
open. Instead, you must drink from a pouch or a straw. Using
the toilet can also be a messy business. People on the ISS have special
machines to capture their waste, otherwise it would float around and contaminate the environment.
But living in space means more than changing your environment. It actually changes
a person's body. When Scott Kelly entered the ISS, there was no gravity
pushing down his spine, so his spine got longer. In space, he
was about three centimeters taller than on Earth. He also did not have to
use his muscles much. In space. You can float in one direction just
by lightly kicking a wall, or you can guide yourself with your hands.
This sounds very fun, but it also means muscles atrophy and lose their power
to move. If a person were to go from space to Earth, it
would be very difficult for them to move, So people living in space must
exercise a lot. This also keeps their bones strong and healthy. But other
changes happened Scott Kelly that no one had seen before. The way his genes
worked changed. People's genes do not change, but a person's environment can change
what those genes do. Scientists call this gene expression. If a person is
in a very stressful environment, different genes will express themselves. Scott Kelly was
in a very strange environment, so his genes started expressing themselves differently. Christopher
Mason is a professor at wild Cornell Medicine. He also helped study Scott and
Mark. He spoke about the study at a conference. As soon as Scott
got into space, there was a huge change in over one thousand genes that
are changing a lot, so clear the body and cells were adapting to this
new environment of space. Few of these changes hurt Scott Kelly. Some even
made his immune system stronger. But being in space for a year did have
some negative effects. The shape of his eyes changed, his vision got worse,
his blood vessels became swollen. He got greater risk of heart disease.
Scott also encountered some radiation in space. This means he has a higher risk
for cancer. After three hundred and forty days, Scott Kelly returned to Earth,
but even after he left space, scientists continued studying him. Most of
the changes did not last long. Some of his DNA was damaged and he
had a harder time thinking as quickly as before, but several months afterward he
reported feeling normal again. These results are very important for future space travel.
Not everyone's bodies will change like Scots. Space affects everyone differently. It even
affects women differently than men. But Scott Kelly's year in space will help predict
things that might go wrong, and it can help prevent these problems in the
future. Some people want to go even farther into space, maybe to distant
planets or other solar systems, but there may be some danger in going to
space. It is difficult to understand how the body might change even farther from
Earth. People travel to other planets would be in space even longer, and
they would encounter a lot of radiation. But probably this will not stop the
next generation of explorers. Space is just too strange and what you might find
there is too interesting. Scott Kelly has retired from NASA, but he still
wants to go to space. John Logsdon is a historian. He studies the
history of space travel. He spoke to Scott Kelly in twenty eighteen about what
it is like in space. Kelly said space is the most joyous and magical
place I could think of. Would you go to space if you could?
Why or why not? Do you think people should travel into space? You
can leave a comment on our website at www dot Spotlight English dot com.
You can also find us on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The
writer of this program was Dan Chrissman. The producer was Michio Ozaki. The
voices you heard were from the United Kingdom and the United States. All quotes
were adapted for this program and voiced by Spotlight. This program is called a
Year in Space. Visit our website to download our free official app for Android
and Apple devices. We hope you can join us again for the next Spotlight
program. Goodbye one