Keith’s note: NASA just issued “What can we learn about human health and performance from astronauts living and working on a Moon Base?“: NASA’s Human Research Program (HRP) is requesting information from the scientific community to help identify research opportunities that will advance human health and performance during sustained human exploration on the Moon.
As NASA transitions from short-duration lunar missions to the development of a future Moon Base, new opportunities will emerge to better understand how living and working in partial gravity affects astronaut physiology, psychology, operational performance, and long-term health. HRP is seeking relevant ideas, emerging scientific questions, and technology needs that will help guide future research planning and reduce risks to astronauts during long-duration lunar missions and future explorations of Mars.
If you have ideas that address these objectives, your response should consider:
- What human health questions should be addressed using data from astronauts working and living on the Moon’s surface for short durations (approximately 1 week to 1 month)?
- What human health and performance data should be collected during the early Moon Base development missions? Would acquiring the information require special resources, dedicated astronaut time, or cause interruption of nominal operations? If yes, how would those data contribute to understanding human health risks identified by NASA and/or developing mitigation strategies to address those specific risks?
- What technologies, equipment, research capabilities would be valuable to have at the Moon Base to enhance human research and support astronaut risk characterization and mitigation?
- What human health questions and risk mitigations could be addressed with data from uncrewed lunar surface missions? Which payload(s) to collect these data might be available to fly in the near future?
To submit a response:
Click here to log in to NSPIRES and select the ” Request for Information (RFI): What can we learn about human health and performance from astronauts living and working on a Moon Base?”
Complete the required summary section with a concise response. Response fields are limited to 4,000 characters.
When prompted, select the appropriate HRP Element (area of interest) that best aligns with your ideas:
- Human Factors and Behavioral Performance (HFBP)
- Human Health Countermeasures (HHC)
- Space Radiation (SR)
Complete the required questions. To avoid system timeouts, NASA recommends drafting responses offline before copying them into NSPIRES.
Who can respond? NASA welcomes responses from researchers, academic institutions, industry, government laboratories, and other organizations with expertise relevant to human health and performance during lunar explorations.
How will responses be used? Responses will be used for planning purposes only and will help inform future HRP research directions. This Request for Information is not a solicitation for proposals and does not provide funding.
Resources: Please explore the following to best align your responses to the priorities of HRP.
- Risks identified by HRP
- Risk Approach Plans (RAPs)
- Ongoing HRP research
- NASA’s Moon Base program
- NASA’s Life Sciences Portal
Additional submission instructions are available in the request’s guidelines.
Deadline: Sept. 8, 2026
Questions: Contact NASA’s Human Research Program Chief Scientist at js-hrp-chief-science-office@mail.nasa.gov
