With future missions expected to travel far beyond Earth, delays in communication and the absence of onboard physicians create major challenges for crew health. To address this, NASA has partnered with Google to develop a prototype Clinical Decision Support System called the Crew Medical Officer Digital Assistant (CMO-DA).
The tool is designed to help astronauts diagnose and treat medical conditions when real-time contact with Earth-based flight surgeons isn’t possible. Using artificial intelligence, natural language processing and predictive analytics, CMO-DA can analyse reported symptoms, suggest likely diagnoses and recommend treatment options.
Early trials used the same testing framework employed by medical schools the – Objective Structured Clinical Examination – to assess the tool’s reliability across a range of simulated medical scenarios. The first results have been promising, showing that the AI system could support astronauts in managing health issues during spaceflight.
NASA and Google are now working with medical doctors to refine the system further. The ultimate aim is to equip astronauts with the capability to provide their own advanced medical care on future missions to the moon, Mars and beyond.
While the technology is being developed for space, it could also have applications here on Earth. AI-powered tools like CMO-DA could one day improve access to healthcare in remote or regional areas of Australia, where patients often face long delays and limited medical support.
NASA said supporting crew health autonomously is vital as space agencies push deeper into the solar system. For Google, the project represents a test bed for AI in one of the most demanding environments imaginable.
“This is about more than just keeping astronauts safe,” one NASA researcher said. “It’s about building medical systems that can operate anywhere – from the surface of Mars to isolated communities on Earth.”