Million2026 t1_je83eai wrote
I thought Scott Kelly stayed in space way longer but turns out it was just 340 days. It’s weird because he went up specifically because he has a twin and they wanted to study the differences of a lengthy space stay on his body vs. His twin brother on Earth to use as a control.
In retrospect only having Scott Kelly stay in space for a year was extremely unambitous. We know astronauts to Mars will be in space for nearly 2 years. We should have had him stay 2 years. I’d think if he wasn’t interested there are other qualified twins who would be.
Anderopolis t1_je96in1 wrote
The "year in space" was not a year long, which is sort of funny.
nighthawk_something t1_je9sjjx wrote
A work year (i.e. minus vacation)
Reddit-runner t1_je9kn0c wrote
> We know astronauts to Mars will be in space for nearly 2 years. We should have had him stay 2 years.
However they will likely be in microgravity for 4-5 months per leg of the trip. During the time at Mars they will experience gravity (albeit less). Plus the radiation flux on the Martian surface is only slightly higher than on the ISS. The thin Martian atmosphere alone blocks radiation surprisingly well.
New classes of rockets like Starship from SpaceX pack enough delta_v to lower the old numbers (6-9 months) significantly.
Theoretically Starship could reach Mars in about 80 days with 100 tons of payload and fully refilled in LEO. But then the arrival velocity at the Martian atmosphere would be too high for the heat shield. So the trip duration has a lower limit of roughly 4 months in a good synod.
purpleefilthh t1_jea3ven wrote
"Endurance" by Scott is a great read.
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