NASA is allocating $19.3 million for 21 studies on the physical and psychological issues astronauts will face as the agency prepares to return to the Moon’s surface in 2024 and advance to Mars in the 2030s.
Missions could last up to three years, all in the absence of gravity or reduced gravity. Astronauts will be exposed to potentially hazardous levels of solar and cosmic radiation while isolated from family and far from traditional health care, dealing with unknown and more familiar risks linked to launches, landings and spacewalks.
The studies, backed by 19 science institutions in a dozen states, will be carried out aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and on the ground. Announced by NASA on Oct. 7, the studies were selected from 109 proposals submitted in 2019 in response to an agency solicitation and evaluated by a panel of experts from academia, government and industry.
A full list of the studies can be found online.
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