SPACE-H Overview
Extended periods of space travel at increasing distance from Earth will require new solutions to support human health and performance. In support of Artemis and future deep space exploration, NASA HRP is seeking commercial partners to support the development of fully autonomous, integrated medical systems to monitor and manage the health of individuals and teams.
The expanding commercial space industry is also in need of new tools and new systems to manage the health and performance of the hundreds of new people who will be in space in the coming years. With the establishment of commercial space stations in low earth orbit (LEO), more than 80% of space travelers are predicted to be private citizens—many of whom will travel with a variety of pre-existing and emergent healthcare needs.
Space is a harsh and inhospitable environment for humans. Space exploration has been enabled by spectacular advances in technology, but microgravity and radiation still effect the human body – every human biological system is affected by the space environment. The biological stress has a deleterious impact on health and physical capabilities, and the extreme conditions and isolation take a significant toll on mental performance and behavior. For the reliability, safety, health, and enjoyment of future space travelers, new solutions are needed to maintain good sociological, physiological, and psychological wellbeing during extended stays.
Resolving these challenges represents a significant opportunity for biotech and medtech entrepreneurs who want to advance the state of the industry and play a pivotal role in enabling the future of space exploration. The remote and harsh environment of space has been a forcing factor for the development of much of the technology that impacts our daily lives, and the same is beginning to be true across bioscience and healthcare. The unique challenges of the space environment necessitates the development of next generation capabilities and systems that will not only protect space travelers but have the potential to improve healthcare outcomes and equity here on Earth.
To that end, Starburst, NASA HRP, and TRISH are collaborating to establish a new space health ecosystem, leveraging the valuable research done and knowledge established over the 24 years of operation on the ISS and the cutting edge capabilities being developed in the commercial markets.
Call for Applicants
For the inaugural year of Space-H, the focus will be on resilient, autonomous health and performance systems. In support of Artemis and future deep space exploration, NASA is seeking commercial partners to support the development of fully autonomous, integrated medical systems to monitor and manage the health of individuals and teams. To produce actional health risk assessments and diagnostics, these systems may incorporate: personal records; medical databases; environmental, sleep, and nutrition data; behavioral and psychological metrics; point-of-care testing; wearables. Solutions sought include but are not limited to:
AI for System Level Autonomy
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Fully autonomous, multi-modal systems to model risks, predict outcomes, and prioritize actions while far from Earth. These systems must be able to: integrate data from multiple medical devices and sensors to monitor health in real-time; analyze complex datasets to identify patterns, anomalies, or changes in condition; make informed decisions or recommendations for treatment based on the integrated data analysis; provide direction in consideration of the limited number of interventions available in a flight medical kit.
Synthetic Data
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Health data from astronauts is limited and not necessarily available for the training and development of AI for autonomous healthcare systems. To test data integration and outputs, there is a need for synthetic “astronaut” personal medical records to be developed based on NASA’s knowledge of astronaut screening protocols and in-flight medical events. The synthetic medical records (100,000+) should be able to train an AI to manage a more diverse set of space flyers as well as pick up on rate medical outliers.
Computational Biology
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New capabilities in computational biology are needed to understand the effects of molecular damage on biological systems, assess long-term risks, and enable precise/personalized medical care. These capabilities also serve to address challenges related to drug stability, storage, development, production, and delivery. Solutions need to be able to: support the identification of molecular and cellular responses to space-specific stressors; integrate diverse biological datasets; identify patterns and correlations between molecular or cellular damage and phenotypic outcomes; predict disease risk, progression, and response to treatments; propose novel diagnostic frameworks and recommend personalized preventative measures and therapeutic interventions.
Medical Devices
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To support long range missions, with increased constraints on resources and without real-time support from or evacuation to Earth, there is a need for compact, lightweight, efficient, multifunctional medical devices to enable every day and medical emergencies. Devices must be capable of diagnosing and treating a wide range of conditions, robust enough to withstand the harsh conditions of space, and able to operate on local area networks to collect and transmit data to the medical system. Where possible, devices should be non-invasive and intuitive to use, able to be operated by non-medical experts.
Sensors
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Many sensors are needed to gather the data necessary to build a complete picture of crew health and performance. Sensors are needed to monitor environmental and physiological health, cognitive health and crew performance, sleep quality and activity levels, and sensorimotor adaptation to changes in gravity. Proposed solutions must be able to: collect and transmit data to the medical system; characterize baseline function, identify anomalies, and predict operational impact; support the mission need for personalized medicine, quantified risk, and crew performance.
Pharmaceuticals
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Limited capacity, difficulty of resupply, and the degradation of many drugs in space necessitate the ability to generate pharmaceuticals in space, on demand, during long duration missions. Novel solutions to manufacture drugs in the space environment are sought, with a focus on processes that don’t require a high volume/mass of substrate and produce minimal waste or by-products. Where possible, solutions should be automated and intuitive to use, able to be operated by non-medical experts.
Biomedical Technologies
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Human cell and tissue-based technologies such as tissue chips and organoids are needed to model diseases, test drug toxicity and response, and predict efficacy of treatments. Solutions are sought to characterize and mitigate the risk of radiation carcinogenesis: to identify patterns and correlations between molecular or cellular damage and phenotypic outcomes; to test and screen biological countermeasures; to inform personalized risk, countermeasures, and treatment.