"The return was much worse than the adaptation of getting up there, especially for the year flight,” Kelly told reporters on Thursday. The study will help scientists better understand the changes astronauts undergo during long-term space travel, crucial knowledge as NASA contemplates human expeditions to the Moon and Mars. Researchers identified five possible causes for the genetic changes, including space radiation and the weightlessness of a zero-gravity environment. The space station where Scott Kelly lived orbits below the Van Allen radiation belt, a shell of energetic charged particles built up outside Earth’s protective magnetic field. "Put me in coach, I'm ready to go," Scott Kelly joked.

Source: Standard Digital April 12, 2019 09:00 UTC