FORT HUACHUCA, Arizona -- Students at Colonel Smith Middle School here Skyped with retired astronaut Capt. Mark Kelly April 18 to learn more about his participation in NASA's Twins Study and complete their Mark Kelly Project.
Andrea Weigle, sixth-grade language arts teacher at Colonel Smith Middle School, explained this was "a culminating event. The students started working on this project as sixth-graders in 2015. They followed Scott Kelly's progress on the International Space Station for one year."
She said the students communicated with Mark as both he and his twin brother Scott Kelly participated in the Twins Study which focused on four categories of research split into 10 investigations to evaluate identical twin astronauts in different environments for one year.
"Through the eyes of Mark Kelly, he answered all of our questions and filled us in on his role on the ground," Weigle continued. "This is the first time that NASA had a control subject here on earth and so they were able to gather a lot of data, and we followed and tracked that data."
Now that the study was over, the teacher "wanted to give [the students] one more opportunity to talk with Captain Kelly about what they did and be able to ask him some more questions."
Weigle said her students "did an amazing job. They made digital journals on their iPads and they worked really hard researching everything, understanding exactly what the tests were that the twins were doing and asking good questions to Mark all the time so we could really understand what was happening."
The Twins Study focused on 10 experiments, including physiological and psychological.
"For NASA it was the first time that they had a control subject on Earth so they could gather information that would be relevant to sending astronauts on long-duration space flights," Weigle explained.
During the Skype session, students asked questions about Mark's experience with the tests and his time in space, including telomeres testing.
"Telomeres are these structures that sit on the end of your genes," Mark explained. And the length of your telomeres is a good indication of how old you are -- physically how old, not how old you are by the calendar."
Mark said the NASA theory was the radiation in space and the stress of being in that environment would shorten Scott's telomeres.
"But in fact, they got longer," Mark said. "We're not so sure why but it could be that my brother is very comfortable to be in space for a long time. My space flights, I went four different times, but my flights were all about two weeks in length."
Mark explained some of the other changes they found in testing was in height because "everyone gets taller in space. Unfortunately it doesn't last when you get home. It goes away very quickly."
NASA expected Scott to lose a lot of bone mass, but "he only lost a little bit of bone mass,," Mark explained.
"He did lose about two percent of his heart mass. So his heart shrunk by two percent. Kind of like the Grinch," Mark quipped. Students found the comparison humorous, and Kelly went on to explain the scientific reason behind the loss is because heart is a muscle and it does not have to work as hard in space with the lack of gravity, the mass decreases.
Dennis Yusuol, eighth-grade student at Colonel Smith Middle School, said he started the project when he was in sixth grade. Yusuol said each year their roles as students changed.
"Then we moved onto the seventh grade, and we started to help out with the new sixth-graders with this project so they would understand it. We taught them the terms that we were taught, and we learned a lot about space -- what they do and what they eat up in the [International Space Station]."
Emma Wolfe, student at Colonel Smith Middle School, said "It was really fun. I enjoyed this project, and I learned a lot."
Tiarra Drisker, student at Colonel Smith Middle School, said she enjoyed several aspects of the project.
"For one, that I talked to an astronaut, 'cause that was awesome," she said. "Also, that space is really different on the body, and I would like to explore more in-depth with that. I really enjoyed doing this."
Social Sharing