By This Hour Science Desk

NASA says it has selected 12 research investigations aimed at two practical constraints on longer human missions: how crews might produce food away from Earth, and how they might better identify and limit health effects associated with spaceflight. Half of the selected work concerns crops and biological systems; the other half focuses on physiology, disease-related processes and possible health countermeasures.

The selections matter because food and health are not separate operational questions for a crew expected to spend extended periods beyond Earth. A reliable crop system would need to function under unfamiliar environmental conditions, while medical planning would need to account for changes that may emerge across multiple body systems. NASA presents the awards as research intended to support exploration, including future work connected to the Moon and Mars, rather than as finished technologies ready for deployment.

More than $7 million is expected to be awarded when the grants are fully implemented over fiscal years 2026 through 2030, NASA says. The funding follows proposals submitted under the agency’s 2024 Space Biology Research Studies solicitation. The selected principal investigators represent 10 institutions in eight states, and nine of the awards are going to researchers receiving Space Biology Program funding for the first time.

Food research looks beyond simply growing plants

NASA’s six Space Crops investigations take a broad view of off-Earth food production. The work encompasses edible plants, the microbes associated with them, plants adapted to severe dryness and genetic questions involving algae. Taken together, the proposals suggest that a space-farming system would be evaluated not only by whether plants can grow, but also by whether the wider biological relationships needed to sustain them can be understood and managed.

Four of the crop proposals focus on edible plants and on the ways their growth, physiology and microbial communities respond to environments encountered in space or on other planetary bodies. That framing places plant biology alongside microbial ecology. In an enclosed agricultural setting, plant-associated organisms could be a material part of the system under study rather than a peripheral consideration.

One selected project will examine plant-microbe dynamics for sustainable space farming. Another will study legume crop rotations and microbial interactions in regolith simulants. The use of simulants signals an effort to investigate agricultural questions in materials intended to stand in for extraterrestrial surface conditions. NASA’s account does not establish that such approaches can support crops on the Moon or Mars; it identifies them as research subjects intended to improve the underlying knowledge.

A further study will examine hydroponic microbes in an environment described as low in carbon and high in radiation, including genetic factors connected to the survival of water- and plant-associated microbes in extraterrestrial settings. This work extends the crop portfolio beyond the plant itself. It also points to a basic uncertainty in biological life-support concepts: organisms that may be helpful in one environment can respond differently when radiation and other conditions change.

The selections also include research on plants known for tolerating extreme dryness, often referred to as resurrection plants. NASA says the proposal will investigate mechanisms behind that resilience for potential use in bioregenerative systems. Such systems are biological approaches that could contribute to life support. The selection does not mean those plants have been validated for spacecraft or planetary habitats. It means their natural tolerance is being examined as a possible source of useful biological traits.

Algae form another strand of the food-related portfolio. One project builds on earlier International Space Station studies to investigate functions of algal genes whose activity changes during spaceflight. NASA characterizes these genes as important to algae survival. The stated objective is to help scientists integrate biologically based solutions into life-support systems, a goal that reaches beyond food alone while remaining dependent on the results of basic research.

The final crop proposal centers on optimizing growing conditions and choosing cultivars to improve dwarf tomato growth and stress tolerance under space-agriculture conditions. Tomatoes make the portfolio’s focus on edible crops especially concrete. Yet the agency has not described the selected research as a near-term plan to furnish crews with a particular crop, nor has it provided outcomes from the work. Questions about performance, reliability and practical integration are consequently still open.

Health portfolio tracks several routes to crew risk

The other six awards sit within NASA’s precision-health work, which seeks to clarify how conditions tied to space exploration affect health and well-being. The proposals span lunar dust, radiation, microgravity, social isolation, elevated carbon dioxide, aging-related changes, spinal health and biological responses at the molecular and cellular levels. Their shared purpose is not a single diagnosis or treatment, but a better account of how different stressors may shape risk.

One investigation will examine the effects of lunar dust exposure on respiratory, immune and inflammatory responses. That topic reflects a direct concern for human contact with material found at the lunar surface. NASA’s summary identifies the biological responses to be studied, but it does not provide a conclusion about the magnitude of the risk or a proposed operational threshold for exposure.

A separate project will seek repurposed drugs that could mitigate effects of space travel on health and physiology. The proposal is paired with research into spaceflight-related aging of the brain-heart axis. Repurposing existing medicines can be an avenue for investigation, but the agency’s selection announcement does not identify a drug as effective, approved for this purpose or ready for crew use. The distinction matters: a funded proposal marks a research direction, not a demonstrated countermeasure.

Radiation appears across the precision-health group in combination with other stressors. Two proposals examine how radiation and additional conditions affect age-relevant characteristics in organs and physiological systems. One of those projects considers microgravity and radiation exposure through the lens of epigenetic memory; another explores how radiation, hypercapnia and social isolation may contribute to biological aging. NASA’s description treats the combined conditions as central to the scientific problem, rather than assuming that each factor can be considered in isolation.

Other awards address protein function, gene expression and pathogenic mutations under conditions relevant to spaceflight. A study of persistent spine-health effects after recovery from microgravity and radiation also brings the work closer to a functional concern for returning crew members. Across these projects, the agency is seeking information on mechanisms: the molecular or cellular changes produced by stressors, and the ways those changes may correspond with broader physiological effects.

NASA says the intended payoff is twofold. The research is meant to identify avenues for mitigating health problems and to support early-warning systems that could alert crews to potential concerns. Neither aim should be read as a promise that the studies will produce a deployable warning tool or a successful intervention. The announced awards set investigations in motion; results, replication and eventual translation into operational practice would be separate steps.

A research portfolio, not a mission-ready system

The pairing of crop biology and precision health gives the selections a coherent exploration purpose. Food production concerns sustained living conditions. Health research concerns the capacity of people to remain well enough to work in those conditions. NASA says its biological and physical sciences work uses space environments for investigations that cannot be conducted in the same way on Earth, while pursuing knowledge needed to travel farther and stay longer.

Still, the scope of the announcement sets clear limits on what can be concluded. NASA has announced selected investigations, not reported completed experiments. No results, performance benchmarks, crew trials or mission deployment dates are provided in the available material. The individual proposals range from genetics and microbial survival to simulated regolith and system-level biological aging, which means they may generate different kinds of findings on different timelines.

The composition of the investigator group also signals a deliberate expansion of participation within the program. NASA says nine recipients are first-time Space Biology Program awardees. That figure describes the funding history of the awards, not the experience or expected success of the studies themselves. Likewise, the presence of institutions across eight states conveys the geographical spread of the selected group but does not resolve which proposals will prove most relevant to future exploration.

NASA’s announcement is the sole source available for this report, and its account has not been independently corroborated. The agency’s stated plans, funding total and characterization of each investigation should therefore be understood as NASA’s own description of the selections. Independent evidence will depend on the projects’ later research outputs and any subsequent agency disclosures about implementation.

Results will determine the practical value

For now, the most concrete next step is implementation of grants across the stated 2026-2030 fiscal-year period. The research will test whether particular biological systems or health approaches can yield useful evidence under conditions relevant to exploration. It may narrow uncertainties even where it does not produce a direct technology or countermeasure.

The crop studies could clarify how plants, microbes, algae and drought-tolerant traits behave in the settings being modeled or investigated. The health work could clarify which stressor combinations deserve closer attention and whether candidate mitigation strategies merit further pursuit. NASA has not said which findings would trigger follow-on development, how it would prioritize successful results, or how any outputs would be incorporated into specific missions.

That restraint is appropriate to the nature of the selection. The awards place targeted questions before researchers: how to sustain useful biology beyond Earth, and how to recognize and reduce hazards to those living there. Their value will rest on evidence yet to be produced, not on the announcement alone.

For further context on this subject, see NASA Seeks Proposals for Lunar Surface Power, Oxygen and Manufacturing.

Reporting notes

What is confirmed: NASA says more than $7 million will be awarded when fully implemented; investigators come from 10 institutions in eight states.

Why this matters: The projects address food production and crew-health risks that could affect longer human missions beyond Earth.

What remains unclear: The announcement provides no study results, deployment plans or evidence that proposed countermeasures will work in missions. This report is based on one source and has not been independently corroborated.

Sources