A short trip to space may cause some of the same changes as long-term space missions, new research shows.
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00:00This is the first time we've had a cell-by-cell examination of a crew when they go into space
00:12and look at T-cells, B-cells, all the different components of the immune system.
00:16We do this for patients at the hospital and patients in research, but this is the first
00:20time we've really had a cellular, high-granularity view of what happens to the body in space.
00:34We found that, for example, telomeres get a little longer in space, which these are
00:38the kind of caps at the end of your chromosomes that keep your DNA intact.
00:56We created a space medical atlas, effectively, which is very similar to what you would want
01:01to have when you go to the doctor and you get blood work done.
01:03You want to be able to see, am I high or low or in range for different molecules in
01:08your blood?
01:09We can now do the same thing for astronauts.
01:11We have enough of them measured, now a total of 64, including these four civilian astronauts.
01:16We have a sense of what a normal spaceflight looks like, and we can begin to plan out longer
01:20missions and use this as a way to monitor the crew to make sure they're staying healthy
01:24for these really bigger missions that are coming up.
01:31This is very good news for commercial space travelers, people who want to go to space
01:35that are looking at these upcoming missions that would go potentially around the moon
01:38and farther into space, because it shows that the human body is very adaptive, and even
01:43if you're not Olympic-athlete-level or have been training for 10 years to be an astronaut,
01:48you can head up into space and actually the body will adapt and you can come back pretty