NASA and Google are partnering together in a first-of-its-kind partnership. Combined, they’re developing an AI-powered smart medical assistant to protect the health of astronauts on long-duration missions to Mars—and beyond. This collaboration utilizes Google’s Vertex AI platform, which provides access to advanced models from Google and various third parties, enabling the exploration of new frontiers in space health management.
As human-spaceflight missions go farther from Earth, keeping crews’ bodies and brains functioning becomes much more complicated. The two organizations are now field testing a proof-of-concept AI medical assistant called CMO-DA. This tool has undergone evaluations in three different medical scenarios: an ankle injury, flank pain, and ear pain. The results are in, and it’s all looking great! The diagnostic accuracies are 88% for ankle injuries, 80% for ear pain, and 74% for flank pain.
Speech, text, and images can be integrated and used seamlessly within CMO-DA due to its multimodal capabilities. It works best if you’re using this new Google Cloud’s Vertex AI environment. This flexibility is key for preparing to meet the many health issues astronauts will face on long missions away from Earth.
David Cruley shared an optimistic view about how their discoveries could affect the larger transportation ecosystem.
“But the lessons learned from this tool could also have applicability to other areas of health.” – David Cruley
Aria Alamalhodaei, TechCrunch Space Editor, Business professional She broke this big news initially from her home base in Austin … Texas. Alamalhodaei has studied art history at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. This experience provides her unique perspective when writing about new technology in the space exploration business.
And by the way, TechCrunch, where Alamalhodaei now writes, will be holding their next TC Sessions: Space event in San Francisco on October 27-29, 2025. This Summit will be no exception, with amazing innovations in AI and what’s more how it can all be applied across multiple sectors.
Even as a roadmap for this AI medical assistant is laid out, it’s intentionally cautious. Every phase is designed to advance the understanding and use of artificial intelligence in protecting our astronaut’s health. As space exploration continues to evolve, NASA and Google together are set to lead the way in creating advanced healthcare technology for use in outer space.
