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Spacewalking astronauts face rapid aging from the effects of radiation and low gravity outside of Earth's orbit.
太空行走的宇航员遭遇快速变老现象，因为他们受到辐射和地球轨道外低重力影响。
In space flight the dominant factor is weightlessness or zero gravity, if you will, and every system in the body changes.
在太空飞行中，可以这么说主要因素是失重状态，身体系统的每个部分都在改变。
To better understand and maybe even combat those changes, scientists launched lab-grown super mice destined for the International Space Station, or ISS.
为了更好地了解，甚至解决这些改变，科学家公布了实验室超级老鼠，它们要前往国际空间站。
The mighty mice are a strain of mice that we generated through genetic engineering,
这种强有力的老鼠是老鼠的一种，并且通过基因工程产生，
and these mice are completely normal except they lack just a single gene, and that's the gene that encodes myostatin.
这些老鼠就是普通老鼠，除了它们只缺少一种单一基因，这种基因对肌抑素进行编码。
Professor Se-Jin Lee began modifying the myostatin in mice in the 1990s. Myostatin is a protein in blood that normally limits muscle growth.
李世真教授在上世纪90年代开始改变老鼠的肌抑素，肌抑素是一种血液蛋白质，通常可以限制肌肉增长。
Without it, these mighty mice have about twice the muscle mass of their non-mighty counterparts.
没有这种基因，这些强有力的老鼠比普通老鼠的肌肉质量多两倍。
Scientist will study if genetic engineering may fight physical changes from space travel.
科学家将研究基因工程是否可以对抗太空旅行带来的身体变化。
We see some changes in bone and muscle, because they're unloaded compared to being in normal gravity.
我们在骨头和肌肉中发现了变化，因为和有重力的地方相比，这些东西被拆卸了下来。
So they start to atrophy, or lose mass and strength. That's why we exercise very hard,
所以他们会开始萎缩，或失去重量和力量，这就是为什么要努力锻炼，
and then we see some more sinister changes that we worry about such as those with the eye, the optic nerve, and our brain.
之后看到了一些担心的不好变化，比如眼睛问题，视神经和大脑问题。
Astronauts can somewhat counteract the losses to muscle mass and bone density through weight training, but they face even greater risks in space.
宇航员可以通过重量训练稍稍抵消肌肉质量损失和骨密度损失，但他们遭受了更大的风险。
In lower-Earth orbit we're underneath the geomagnetic fields, which serve as a shield for us in a way,
在低地球轨道上，我们处于地磁场下面，一定程度上为我们提供了保护伞，
and we'll get about three times as much ionizing radiation in deep space as we would in in low-Earth orbit.
相较于在低轨道，我们在外层空间受到的电离辐射是之前的三倍。
The long-term effects of radiation become a greater concern as astronauts look to longer and deeper space travel to Mars and beyond.
辐射带来的长期影响成为了主要担忧，随着宇航员期待着前往火星等更远地方的深层之旅。
Professor Lee hopes his mighty mice may not only offer solutions to damage caused by long-term space flight
李教授希望这些强有力的老鼠不仅可以帮助解决长期太空旅行带来的伤害，
but also help understand muscle loss in aging populations and those with muscle-wasting conditions.
更可以帮助了解老龄化肌肉质量下降以及肌肉萎缩情况的人。
Arash Arabasadi, VOA news Washington
阿拉什·阿巴萨迪，VOA新闻华盛顿报道
