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NASA is preparing to send pieces of human biology into deep space to find out how radiation and weightlessness harm the body. The AVATAR project, short for A Virtual Astronaut Tissue Analog Response, will fly on the Artemis II mission in 2026. The experiment uses small organ chips containing real astronaut cells to study how bone marrow reacts to cosmic conditions.
The findings will help protect future crews traveling to the Moon, Mars, and beyond while advancing cancer treatment research on Earth.
Each AVATAR chip is about the size of a thumb drive. Inside, it holds living human cells that behave like miniature organs. These chips mimic bone marrow, made from stem cells taken from the Artemis II astronauts. They reproduce how blood-forming cells grow and react inside the body, allowing scientists to study deep-space effects without endangering crew members.
To build each chip, researchers extract stem cells from the astronauts’ blood. They place them inside narrow channels lined with blood vessel cells. Fluid circulates through these channels to simulate the movement of blood.
Sensors record how the tissue responds to space conditions such as microgravity and cosmic radiation. This approach comes from microfluidic technology developed in the 2010s and replaces some forms of animal testing with realistic human cell models.
NASA chose bone marrow for AVATAR because it produces red, white, and platelet cells essential for oxygen transport, immunity, and clotting. Radiation and weightlessness disrupt all three. In deep space, radiation exposure can be hundreds of times stronger than on Earth, especially during solar quiet periods. Understanding how bone marrow responds is vital for maintaining astronaut health on long missions.
Artemis II will be NASA’s first crewed flight of the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System rocket. The 10-day mission will loop around the Moon and return to Earth. The AVATAR hardware, designed by Space Tango, will run automatically inside the spacecraft while astronauts focus on flight tasks.
The chip technology itself is supplied by Emulate, a company specializing in organ-on-a-chip systems that can function for months without direct maintenance.
Outside Earth’s magnetic field, the chips will experience real radiation that cannot be fully simulated in labs on Earth. Scientists expect to see DNA damage, altered gene expression, and weakened cell growth. Early lab tests already show that marrow cells change how they produce proteins when exposed to radiation.
After the mission, researchers will analyze the returned samples using RNA sequencing to measure how spaceflight changed each gene’s activity.
These results will build on earlier studies like NASA’s Twins Study, which compared astronaut Scott Kelly’s year in orbit with his twin brother on Earth. AVATAR goes a step further by testing astronaut-derived tissue directly in deep space. The project may explain why some people handle radiation better, leading to more personalized space medicine.
For Mars missions lasting up to three years, this data could help NASA create individual medical kits and drug plans. Each astronaut’s cells could reveal unique sensitivities, allowing doctors to design custom countermeasures before launch. The same knowledge could improve care for cancer patients on Earth, where radiation therapy often damages bone marrow and causes fatigue, infections, or anemia.
AVATAR’s benefits extend to drug testing, too. Organ chips already allow pharmaceutical companies to predict side effects and test treatments without animal trials. By using astronaut tissue, NASA adds an extreme testing ground that could improve how therapies are designed for both space and Earth.
NASA plans to expand the project after Artemis II to include organ chips representing the liver, kidneys, and heart. In the future, astronauts could even carry chips that monitor their health in real time, warning of radiation damage before symptoms appear.
The AVATAR project bridges the gap between spaceflight and medicine. By sending human cells where no lab can go, NASA hopes to better protect astronauts on future deep-space missions and bring home discoveries that improve lives on Earth.
