To Check Astronaut Health, ESA Is Developing a Blood Analysis Lab-On-A-Chip That Works in Space

Final View of the ISS NASA

Anyone willing to travel to remote places for the sake of science has to accept some health problems, be it frostbite in Antarctica or bone loss in space. To make matters worse, these people also have to accept self-diagnosing and self-treating these health problems, not to mention others that may arise in the course of their missions. Now the European Space Agency wants to make these types of tests somewhat simpler for the astronauts who may need to perform them, by developing a space-worthy lab on a chip.

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Technology, Rebecca Boyle, astronauts, diagnostic system, esa, health, international space station, lab-on-a-chip, life in space, space tech, tests

The disc and micro-assay system was designed to perform low-cost disease diagnosis for clinics and mobile analysis, according to the company. The entire device is the size of a matchbox. The new partnership with ESA will allow the company to develop a version that works in space, ESA said in a news release.

Nadine Fritz, of ESA’s Directorate of Human Spaceflight and Operations, said the chip would be useful for a wide range of biochemical studies on board the ISS.

“The retirement of the space shuttle has significantly reduced the amount of cargo we can download from the station, so it makes sense to do what analysis we can do in orbit,” she said.