CLEVELAND, Ohio -- NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland is spearheading a collaborative effort to find and test a portable X-ray device suitable for space travel, addressing a critical gap in medical capabilities for astronauts on long-duration missions.
The project involves local partnerships to ensure the chosen device is effective for both medical emergencies and non-medical inspections aboard the International Space Station and future spacecraft.
Here are the 5 takeaways from the original article by health reporter Julie Washington:
To enhance astronaut safety on long-duration missions, NASA Glenn is leading a project to select a small, portable X-ray machine for use in space. Currently, the International Space Station has an ultrasound machine but lacks X-ray capabilities, leaving astronauts without a key diagnostic tool for injuries like broken bones or for monitoring changes caused by microgravity.
The goal is to find a device that is easy for non-technicians to operate, produces hospital-quality images, and is versatile enough to justify its cost and space on a spacecraft. The winning machine is scheduled to be selected by next year and launched to the ISS in 2027 or 2028.
The evaluation of the X-ray devices is a multi-disciplinary collaboration between NASA Glenn and two other Northeast Ohio institutions: Cuyahoga Community College and University Hospitals.
Tri-C utilized its advanced radiography and dental hygiene labs to train the NASA team on proper X-ray techniques using anatomical phantoms and specialized manikins, ensuring they could achieve the best image quality.
UH is providing the crucial clinical testing environment, where the portable devices are used on volunteer patients to compare their images directly with those from traditional, hospital-grade equipment.
This local partnership leverages regional expertise for a project with cosmic implications.
The chosen X-ray machine is intended to be a multi-purpose tool, essential for maximizing its value in the constrained environment of a spacecraft.
Medically, it could be used to diagnose fractures and monitor physiological changes in astronauts due to radiation or weightlessness.
Beyond medicine, the device has significant non-medical applications. As NASA Glenn project task lead Cy Peverill explained, it could be used to inspect parts of the spacecraft for damage, examine the health of plants being grown in space without disturbing them, or even look for internal damage in equipment like lunar rover tires before a critical mission.
The devices are undergoing a rigorous, multi-stage evaluation to test their capabilities under different conditions.
The process began at Tri-C, where the NASA team learned to operate the equipment on human bone and tissue samples without exposing living subjects to radiation. At NASA Glenn, researchers tested the devices' ability to penetrate non-human materials, successfully imaging the internal components of damaged rover tires and electronics.
The final phase is underway at University Hospitals, where researchers are collecting images from up to 40 patients to compare the portable units' performance on various body parts -- such as wrists versus chests -- against standard hospital X-rays.
After an initial review of over 200 different X-ray machines, NASA has narrowed its selection down to three competing systems from different global manufacturers.
The candidates are a device from MinXray, an Illinois-based supplier of portable imaging equipment; a system from Remedi, a medical technology company based in Korea; and a unit from Fujifilm, the Japanese multinational corporation known for imaging and healthcare products.
These three devices are being judged on a range of criteria including size, weight, power consumption, image quality, and ease of use to determine which is best suited for the unique demands of space travel.