Brazilian technology helps NASA assess health risks for astronauts on mission to the Moon

Source Domain: www.eurekalert.org

Just a few hours before the Orion spacecraft crossed the sky en route to the Moon on April 1, mechatronics engineer Rodrigo Trevisan Okamoto received confirmation he had been waiting for since the Artemis 2 mission was announced in 2023. The email from NASA stated that the crew of the first crewed mission to orbit the Moon in half a century would carry a device developed by Okamoto and his team at Condor Instruments, a São Paulo-based startup that received funding from FAPESP’s Innovative Research in Small Businesses (PIPE) program.

“The NASA announcement was sudden and caught us by surprise. And it was only after the mission concluded that we learned the astronauts had been using the equipment in tests for the past two years,” Okamoto told Agência FAPESP.

The device, called an actigraph, is shaped like a wristwatch and incorporates accelerometers, as well as light and temperature sensors, to precisely map the user’s sleep and wake patterns over the course of days or weeks.

It works by using an activity sensor that monitors the frequency and intensity of arm movements. By analyzing this data, it is possible to infer periods of rest (an absence of movement) and periods of alertness (the presence of movement). This allows for the accurate recording of an individual’s circadian behavior. This approximately 24-hour “biological clock,” which regulates the physical and behavioral functions of most living beings, is primarily influenced by light.

To monitor this clock, the device features ten onboard sensors that detect light exposure across different spectral bands. This data is crucial because it allows us to characterize the intensity and spectral composition of light throughout the light-dark cycle. This cycle is the primary external regulator that synchronizes the internal biological clock with the environment.

“The light-dark cycle is defined by the Earth’s rotation, and it’s based on this that the…

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