Pitt researchers say Artemis II mission can advance medical and technological research on Earth

NASA recently sent a crewed spaceship around the moon. Why?

NASA’s Artemis II mission launched April 1 and safely returned to earth on April 10, with a goal of testing human capability in deep space while setting a record for human distance away from the Earth. Pitt researchers specializing in space explain why the mission is relevant to furthering research in biomedicine, earth science and future space explorations.

According to Alan George, the founder of the Pitt Space initiative and director of space engineering, the mission served as a critical test of the systems required to safely send humans deeper into space and is only one phase of the larger Artemis program. Artemis I launched in 2022, and more missions are planned for upcoming years with one of the goals being to land humans on the moon again.

“The Artemis program is to develop and prove and then deploy and use the technologies necessary to return mankind to the moon,” George said. “[The] Artemis II [mission] is, ‘let’s do it now with people on board and the four astronauts.’”

George said many of the difficulties with spaceflight relate to the far distance, which is why testing new technologies in space is essential. 

“If you tied a string around the Earth 10 times and stretched it out, that’s about how far away the moon is. Getting to the moon and back is really challenging. It doesn’t look far in the sky, but it’s extremely far from Earth,” George said. “Until you’ve tested something in space and proven it, nobody really believes in it. It doesn’t have space or flight heritage.”

Afshin Beheshti, director for the Center of Space Biomedicine in the Trivedi Institute, said space missions like Artemis II allow researchers to study how the human body responds to deep space conditions. Behesti said the goal of the institute and biomedical research in Pitt’s Space Biomedicine program is to conduct clinical research that is not limited only to space exploration but to “help humanity on Earth.”

“Space accelerates all the health risks. The whole goal of doing space biomedicine research is to help prevent that damage, like understanding the biology behind it, and understanding the impact on your health,” Beheshti said.

Beheshti said that while there are many inventions that came from space-based research, including eyeglasses, jacket insulation and Nike Air. He is most excited for biomedical innovations.

“If it’s a medical breakthrough that improves millions of people’s lives, I think that’s going to have the most exciting impact,” Beheshti said.

Pitt’s space science initiative seeks to explore what space missions like Artemis II can reveal about earth science and related technologies like data analysis and data modeling. Michael Ramsey, the director of space science at Pitt, said Artemis’ perspective of Earth from the moon could potentially allow scientists to track long-term climate patterns like cloud formation, temperature changes and energy flow in Earth’s atmosphere.

“We can observe the percent clouds increase over time. If the climate’s getting warmer, the models show that you’re going to start to evaporate more water from the oceans. You’re going to make more clouds. That might make them make more rain, so you might have higher flooding,” Ramsey said.

Ramsey said these changes can be observed in a more efficient way from the moon than from satellites in Earth’s orbit due to the difference in distance.

“From the moon, getting what we would call a synoptic view, this overall picture of the Earth in some ways is even more beneficial than what they can do from other satellites,” Ramsey said. 

Kerry Handron, who works with the outreach program at the Allegheny Observatory, said she believes after the Artemis II mission, the community is showing a greater appreciation for moon trees, which are grown from seeds that flew around the moon on NASA’s 2022 Artemis I mission. A sweetgum tree grown from some of the seeds is currently growing at Riverview Park near the Observatory. 

“It’s become exciting, even a few weeks ago, everybody has a far greater appreciation when we [take tours] to go to the moon tree,” Handron said. “We planted it a year and a half ago, so it’s had a full growing season, and it’s just starting to pop out its buds now.” 

Additionally, Handron said she believes missions like Artemis II capture public attention because of the human stories they carry.

“You always need stories,” Handron said. “Facts without stories to hold them together are lost or blown away in the wind. You need that web of stories to connect them, to make them meaningful and valuable.”

George said he believes space missions are also the “unifying events” of space exploration,  extending beyond their scientific and technological breakthroughs. 

“There’s nothing more unifying than deep space travel by human beings,” George said. “That’s the biggest reason that Artemis II is so exciting — because it helps to bring the world together.”