Casual Space 168: Twin Orbit Study with participants Brent and Brad West and Chris Mason
Brad West will have to eat the same food, do the same exercise, contain and restrict his social circles, conduct similar experiments, tasks, and basically copy everything his twin brother Brent will do…while in space…for more than 500 days… simulating the same amount of time it will take for humans to get to Mars- and helping to prepare humans to explore Mars.
Why would Brad and Brent do this? It's all part of the proposed "Twin Orbit Study" that you're about to discover right here, on the Casual Space Podcast.
The commercialization of space (SpaceX, Axiom Space, Blue Origin) brings new opportunities to study astronauts, including identical twins, on industry‐led space stations with unprecedented detail. Extremely long‐duration microgravity will be the new normal when we travel into deep space, starting with Mars, and our success will be a test of health endurance in several respects. First, given the great distances, there will be very limited support from Earth once the mission begins. Second, the space weather (and radiation) is an order of magnitude more challenging. Third, the behavioral and cognitive challenges for such long missions will place an unprecedented strain on the crew. Although NASA, ESA, JAXA, ROSCOSMOS, and others are building a large knowledge base to address these challenges through missions on the International Space Station, very few crew have been studied in weightlessness for durations over six months, and more data from longer missions is critically needed.
Which makes for a perfect opportunity for The Twin Orbit study team, who are proposing a brand new, long‐duration Twins Study (building from the NASA Twins Study), and will work to accomplish four main goals:
- Conduct Scientific Research for Biomedical Discovery and Testing New Hypotheses
- Develop and Deploy New Technologies for Crew Health and Mission Maintenance
- Develop Crew Health Operating Procedures Applicable for Long‐duration and Deep Space Missions
- Inspire the Next Generation of Explorers
Learn More About Twin Orbit here: https://www.twinorbit.com/
About Brent West, in his own words: "It was the Cosmos TV series that initially captured my interest...I saw the first episode in high school in the late 1980's, and since that time I have always been fascinated with all-things space. I knew I wanted to be an astronaut after I saw the movie Apollo 13 in the summer of 1995. I focused on my purpose and what I wanted to do and be involved with. At the time, I was a young LTjg (Lieutenant Junior Grade) onboard my first submarine, USS PINTADO (SSN-672).
Brent West, Commander, U.S. Navy, earned his master's degree in Aerospace Engineering from University of Michigan in 2001 and worked in the Space Physics Research Laboratory as a student research assistant to help design a small student-led satellite project. Brent also worked as a flight controller at Johnson Space Center from 2001 – 2003 in ECLSS (Environmental Control and Life Support Systems and earned his PhD in Physics from George Mason University in 2012, studying X-ray pulsars.
About Brad West: Brad West graduated from Winnebago High School in Winnebago, Illinois in 1990. He attended Illinois State University where he received his Bachelor of Science degree in sociology in 1994 and a Master of Science degree in education administration in 1996. Soon after receiving his master's degree, Brad moved to Richmond, Virginia to work as a Career Systems Manager/Advisor at Virginia Commonwealth University. He moved to Orlando, Florida in the spring of 1998, at the behest of a best friend who was working at Disney, and took employment in information technology at the Universal Orlando Resort. He loved the atmosphere and the energy of Universal and Orlando and worked there until the spring of 2004.Brad was accepted into the Doctor of Philosophy program in Higher Education Administration at the University of Florida in 2004. Upon starting the program, he worked as a graduate assistant in the Graduate School under the supervision of Associate Dean of the Graduate School. There, he became enamored with the many fields of graduate and doctoral education. After finishing program coursework, he worked several years in information technology at the University of Florida. Doctoral candidacy followed, and ultimately obtained a PhD in Higher Education Administration in 2013 with a focus on factors that influence doctoral time-to-degree in graduate education. Today, Brad is living in Southern Florida and working in information technology for a large national health care system. He enjoys traveling, visiting friends in the Florida keys, music, sports, anything NASA, and meeting new people.
About Chris Mason Dr. Christopher E. Mason is a geneticist and computational biologist who has been a Principal Investigator and Co-investigator of many NASA missions and projects. He is a Professor at Weill Cornell Medicine, with affiliate appointments at the Meyer Cancer Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, the Information Society Project (ISP) at Yale Law School, and the Consortium for Space Genetics at Harvard Medical School.
Here's what to do next:
Check out Chris's new book; The Next 500 Years: Engineering Life to Reach New Worlds
Reach out here with questions; info@twinorbit.com