← Back to NASA Technology Projects
Active TRL 5 (started at 5, targeting 8)
As NASA prepares for longer duration missions that will take us farther than ever before, we must prioritize our most valuable spaceflight asset: humans. Future Martian missions present a new set of challenges, including communication delays that could be harmful if a crew member faced a medical situation and needed care. While we must consider humans first, other factors such as vehicle space, consumables, and ease of use play a role in the medical hardware we send with our crews. This project seeks to make the health and safety of crew members easier to monitor and respond to, should the need arise for emergency care.
Due to its small size and ease of use, selected portable ECG hardware addresses many of the challenges medical devices often present during spaceflight missions. Medical capabilities for the crew require a large amount of space for hardware, consumables, and durable medical equipment, and often require medical professionals to interpret results. The Kardia 12 lead (12L) ECG system selected for analysis can quickly share raw data via email or cloud, negating the need for multiple teams of people to respond to a medical event. Crew members can receive data directly from the device, store it, transmit it to flight surgeons on the ground, and better understand the health status of crew members. This system is compact, low mass, and requires fewer consumables than traditional ECG monitoring systems, which are desirable characteristics as we seek to optimize medical capabilities for long duration missions.
Listed on TechPort itself — the most direct way to ask about this specific project.
This is early/mid-stage (TRL 5) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.
None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.