NASA’s “Astronaut Avatars” – Tiny Organ Chips Poised to Protect Artemis II Crew’s Health
What Are NASA’s “Avatars for Astronaut Health”? NASA’s “Avatars for Astronaut Health” is a bold initiative to send small living models of astronauts’ organs into deep space. These “avatars” aren’t robots or holograms – they are organ-on-a-chip devices containing real human cells, designed to mimic the functions of human tissues science.nasa.gov. For Artemis II, NASA will load chips with cells donated by the four crew members themselves, essentially creating miniaturized versions of their organ tissue that can be studied in parallel with the crew science.nasa.gov science.nasa.gov. The goal is to see how these cells respond to deep space conditions – such
