HOUSTON – NASA astronaut Scott Kelly will soon become the first American to spend an entire year in space.
Kelly has been up to the International Space Station three times before, but never for more than six months.
"I think the biggest challenge is that it'll be twice as long as I was there last time," Kelly said Thursday from Johnson Space Center. "So, I'm going to have to pace myself."
Kelly, 50, will need all the energy he can muster. He'll be subjecting himself to countless experiments to determine the reactions and limitations of the human body away from earth.
"From bone loss and muscle loss to effects on our immune system, vision, vestibular system and radiation," Kelly said. "You do get a lot of radiation in space, and we know what radiation can do to people. So that is a concern."
Kelly will also undergo experiments on twin gene expression with his brother, former astronaut Mark Kelly, husband of former Rep. Gabby Giffords. Mark Kelly will be monitored on Earth, while Scott Kelly orbits above.
"If we understand our physiology better as a result of this mission, then Mars flight in the next decade, or the decade after, is something that we can definitely accomplish if we put our minds to it," Scott Kelly said.
Right now, NASA is confident in its technology to get to Mars, but it's the human element in space that needs better understanding. NASA is hoping Scott Kelly's yearlong mission will help them gain that understanding.
Scott Kelly will be spending the year aboard the ISS with Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko. They will launch from Kazakhstan on Friday, March 27.