A slow-moving man?

Astronauts with slow-walking genes will be able to colonize Mars

Sergey Vasiliev, Naked Science

Chris Mason, professor at Weill–Cornell Medical College, geneticist and physiologist, is a specialist in space medicine. He was one of the experts who conducted the famous experiment with twin astronauts Mark and Scott Kelly. The analysis of the data collected at that time is still ongoing, and recently, speaking at a conference on human genetics held in New York, Mason reported new results of this work.

According to him, seven more articles based on NASA's "twin study" are being prepared for publication. In particular, they reveal new details about the dangerous effect of cosmic radiation on human DNA, and also consider the possibilities of protection from its effects. In an interview for Space.com Mason spoke about the prospects of genetic modification that could make astronauts more resistant to radiation.

First of all, we are talking about intervention not in the genes themselves, but in their "tuning", in the epigenetic markers of DNA. However, there are other, more fantastic possibilities. So, experiments have shown that specialized proteins of slow walkers that bind to their DNA and protect it from radiation are quite capable of protecting the DNA of human cells.

Mason believes that the genes of such proteins should eventually appear in the future inhabitants of Mars by themselves: "The question is not whether they will arise; the question is when," says the scientist. A similar artificial intervention in DNA will only accelerate and facilitate this process. However, while the technology for this is clearly not ripe. "I think in 20 years we will get to the stage where we can confidently say that now we are ready to create people better suited for Mars," Mason added.

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