In Brief
- NASA’s Artemis II mission carried the AVATAR experiment, which sent living human bone marrow cells from the crew on organ-on-chip devices beyond low Earth orbit for the first time.
- The technology mimics organ function on USB-sized chips, allowing scientists to study how deep-space radiation and microgravity affect individual astronauts at the genetic level.
- Now that the crew has returned, researchers will compare the space-flown chips against identical Earth-based samples to map the biological effects of lunar-distance travel.
The Artemis II crew brought home more than flight data. Packed alongside the astronauts was AVATAR (A Virtual Astronaut Tissue Analog Response), a NASA experiment that sent organ-on-chip devices loaded with the crew’s own bone marrow cells around the Moon and back.
It’s the first time this class of experiment has traveled beyond low Earth orbit. Organ-on-chip devices have been tested on the International Space Station since researchers began developing them around 2010, but Artemis II flew far deeper into space, exposing the chips to radiation and gravitational conditions closer to what future long-duration missions will face.
What’s on the chips
Organs-on-chips are fluid-filled devices roughly the size of a USB stick. They contain living human cells arranged to mimic the function of specific organs. Because the cells can come from specific individuals, the chips can model how a particular person’s body responds to drugs, disease or environmental stress.
The AVATAR chips carried bone marrow cells taken from the Artemis II astronauts themselves. Matching samples remained on Earth. With the crew now safely back, scientists will analyze genetic-level changes in the space-flown cells and compare them against the ground controls.
Toward personalized medical kits
The long-term goal is to build individualized medical kits for astronauts. Anthony Colaprete, a researcher at NASA’s Ames Research Center, said this would represent a significant step as more people travel to space.
Weight is always a constraint on missions. Spacecraft can’t carry every possible medication, so knowing exactly what each crew member is likely to need could prove critical. The chips’ small size means future lunar missions could run more experiments in the same payload space while making onboard medical supplies more targeted and efficient.
A decade of development
The underlying technology was developed more than a decade ago by Donald Ingber at Harvard University. Ingber is now collaborating with NASA on the AVATAR program. He said future iterations could include real-time monitoring of the chips during flight, giving mission controllers a live read on how crew biology is responding to the space environment.
NASA plans to send astronauts to the lunar surface in 2028 on Artemis 4.
