SArES: SCG-Sensorsystem for Artemis II Experiment SpacePatch

For the upcoming Artemis Moon missions, the development of radiation-tolerant health sensors is of paramount importance to ensure astronaut safety and system autonomy.

Maintaining astronaut health under long-term and long-distance conditions is of highest priority with upcoming plans for lunar and Martian missions and colonization. The focus is shifting from solely providing medical care and short-term medical interventions to disease prevention and enhancing astronauts' resilience to prevent medical complications well in advance.

The overarching goal of the SArES project, in collaboration with the Smart Sensors Group at the Technical University of Hamburg, is to investigate the impact of weightlessness and radiation on the cardiovascular health of astronauts. This is technically achieved by providing a qualified and flight-capable sensor system, including sensor-level data preprocessing and a User Interface (UI), utilizing the Seismocardiography (SCG) method. Through technical implementation and scientific analysis, comprehensive health monitoring of an astronaut during a mission is enabled.

As a partner in the SArES project, the University of Bielefeld is responsible for the development of sensor-level data preprocessing on the Edge-Device for preliminary data evaluation of the SCG sensor system. They are developing algorithms for raw data quality assessment, data preprocessing procedures, feature extraction, and data provisioning. As an interface module, they prepare the sensor data for further analysis tools and provide the preprocessed data via an interface. Additionally, the University of Bielefeld designs and develops the 'Mission Tablet User Interface' for the astronauts' tablet PCs. This application presents the extracted parameters and further analyses, allowing astronauts to interact with their self-measured data during spaceflight. The University of Bielefeld conducts project-related evaluations with a focus on 'human factor'-related aspects of software development (usability design, user experience) and analyzes pre-flight and post-flight data regarding preprocessing in the interface module.

The project is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) under grant number 50WB2421B. The project has a duration of 18 months, starting on January 1, 2024, and is managed by the German Aerospace Center (DLR).