In the current issue of Scientific American there is a very brief interview with NASA astronaut Scott Kelly. I found this Q&A interesting:
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What does your experience tell us about longer astronaut missions in the future?
Kelly: The researchers didn’t observe anything that would prevent us from going to Mars. Certainly the radiation is something we’ve got to deal with, although this wasn’t really an experiment on that. But if we’re going to go beyond Mars, we are going to have to start thinking about artificial gravity. I flew in space for seven, 13, 154 and then 340 days. The longer you’re there, the more symptomatic you are when you return. I couldn’t imagine coming back to Earth after being in space for many years.
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What does your experience tell us about longer astronaut missions in the future?
Kelly: The researchers didn’t observe anything that would prevent us from going to Mars. Certainly the radiation is something we’ve got to deal with, although this wasn’t really an experiment on that. But if we’re going to go beyond Mars, we are going to have to start thinking about artificial gravity. I flew in space for seven, 13, 154 and then 340 days. The longer you’re there, the more symptomatic you are when you return. I couldn’t imagine coming back to Earth after being in space for many years.
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