NASA’s Artemis II mission will send astronauts around the moon for the first time in more than fifty years, providing new opportunities for space medicine research, University of Central Florida (UCF) experts said on Mar. 31.
The mission is expected to include several health studies on its four-member crew to examine how factors such as radiation, microgravity, and isolation affect their physical and mental health. This information is seen as crucial for future lunar missions and understanding human capabilities in deep space.
Emmanuel Urquieta, vice chair for aerospace medicine at UCF’s College of Medicine and director of the Center for Aerospace and Extreme Environments Medicine (CASEEM), said: “Artemis II is both a historic and biomedically important mission. For the first time since Apollo 17, humans will travel beyond the Earth’s magnetic field. That matters enormously from a research perspective, because now we have technology to thoroughly understand the health impact of embarking into deep space. The knowledge gained from Artemis II will help shape the future of safe human space exploration and drive innovations that can benefit medicine here on Earth and help us start preparing us for a mission to Mars.”
William “Ed” Powers, CASEEM’s chief medical officer who previously served as NASA’s Medical Operations branch chief, noted advances in medical technology since earlier missions: “Medical knowledge, technology and the ability to diagnose disease have advanced significantly since then.” He also pointed out challenges with treating illnesses far from Earth: “None of the four astronauts on this flight is a physician,” Powers said. “And a space capsule certainly doesn’t have the same equipment you’d have in a hospital emergency room.”
Jennifer Fogarty, CASEEM’s chief scientist who formerly led NASA’s Human Research Program science team, discussed new “organ-on-a-chip” devices used in experiments: “With this technology we can see how the body responds to stimuli across the whole mission,” she said. Fogarty explained that these chips could allow NASA physicians to predict individual biological responses before sending crews on longer journeys such as those planned for Mars: “It’s basically sending small versions of astronauts to Mars before we send astronauts to Mars.”
The Artemis II crew will also participate in behavioral studies using sleep and movement monitors during their ten-day journey beyond Earth’s protective Van Allen belts—further than any previous human has traveled from Earth. Fogarty commented on teamwork requirements: “You watch the astronauts on TV, and it looks so easy,” she said. “But human performance is critical in space… So we need to understand how the team performs, their reserve and resilience. The mission itself is the experiment.”
On April 10 at Lake Nona’s Medical City near Orlando, UCF experts along with strategic partners plan to discuss collaboration efforts at an event called “Star Nona 2026.” The gathering aims to explore ways research from missions like Artemis II can lead to clinical innovations benefiting both future explorers and patients back on Earth.
