A story: Sky, who watches with you
Four crew, one outbreak in the ship's garden, and one action that only the commander can confirm. The story is written in Vietnamese.
Read the storyNASA Space Apps 2026 · Ho Chi Minh City
Meet Sky, the clinical assistant that travels with the crew.
On a mission to Mars there is no resupply and Earth is far away. Sky plays the role of a clinical nurse: it collects medically significant data, analyses it, and gives astronauts and flight surgeons recommendations and warnings before a problem becomes a medical event.
- Runs fully offline
- Humans confirm every action
- Open source, Apache-2.0
Challenge: Create Health Monitoring Software for Astronauts on Space Missions
Two assistants, one crew
Sky serves the astronaut and the flight surgeon from the same data.
- For astronauts
Personal health assistant
Sky analyses the activities and environments tied to each duty, then gives personalised suggestions that help the astronaut perform at their best. If one astronaut has a medical incident, Sky alerts every crew member so the crew can respond together.
ExampleAn astronaut has labor-intensive work on the celestial surface tomorrow. Sky recommends a certain supplement and enough rest to prepare.
- For flight surgeons
Clinical assistant
Sky continuously collects medical data from the whole crew and analyses it to support diagnosis and treatment recommendations. It measures the risk of infectious disease among crew members, for each person and for the crew as a whole.
ExampleAn astronaut's medical log shows symptoms of influenza, so the risk of it spreading to the crew rises. Sky warns the flight surgeon and suggests quarantine. It suggests treatment to the astronaut at risk, and preventive methods and symptoms to watch for to everyone else.
Five hazards Sky watches for
NASA groups the risks of a journey to Mars into five hazards. For each one, Sky follows the signals that matter and compares them with the astronaut's own pre-flight baseline.
Space radiation
Cardiovascular and endothelial damage, and impaired neurogenesis.
Risks
- Arterial stiffness and early vascular aging
- Endothelial thickening
- Arrhythmias and conduction disturbances
- Myocardial injury
- Orthostatic intolerance after EVA and landing
- Spatial and working memory
- Intracranial pressure and neuro-optic stress
- Sleep-wake rhythm disruption
Measured with
- Pulse wave velocity
- Carotid ultrasound
- Holter ECG or smart patch
- Point-of-care troponin, hs-CRP, IL-6
- Continuous blood pressure and heart rate
- NASA Cognition tests
- Optical coherence tomography
- fNIRS
- Wrist actigraphy
Changes in gravity fields
Months of weightlessness on the way, about ⅜ of Earth's gravity on Mars, then re-adaptation to Earth's gravity.
Risks
- Fluid shift and spaceflight-associated neuro-ocular syndrome
- Bone loss
- Muscle atrophy and strength loss
- Cardiovascular deconditioning
- Space motion sickness and balance problems
Measured with
- Optical coherence tomography
- DXA or pQCT and bone-turnover markers
- ARED load and power tracking
- Ultrasound and echocardiogram
- Holter monitoring and blood pressure cuffs
- Neurobehavioral tests and gait assessment
Isolation and confinement
A small crew, far from home, for a long time.
Risks
- Sleep loss
- Circadian desynchronization
- Work overload
Measured with
- Wrist actigraphy and sleep logs
- Psychomotor vigilance task
- Melatonin and cortisol rhythms
- Core body temperature
- NASA Task Load Index
- Mood logs and voice stress analysis
Hostile and closed environments
The ecosystem inside the spacecraft shapes the crew's microbes, immune system and hormones.
Risks
- Altered gut, skin and mucosal microbiome
- Immune dysregulation and viral reactivation
- Endocrine disruption
Measured with
- Onboard metagenomic sequencing
- Fecal calprotectin and plasma zonulin
- Viral DNA load by PCR
- Cytokine panels
- Salivary and plasma endocrine panels
Distance from Earth
The trip to Mars takes 7 to 10 months and there is no resupply. The crew depends on careful planning and its own self-sufficiency, which is why Sky works without a link to Earth.
The data Sky needs, and the standard it is checked against
Limits below come from NASA-STD-3001 Volume 1 Rev B (Crew Health). Every requirement links to the same document.
How Sky gets its data
- Automatically
Machines and tools on board synchronise their measurements with Sky, for example exercise equipment and wearables.
- By asking
When a measurement has no machine, Sky prompts the astronaut for a manual entry, such as a symptom or a meal.
| Data | Standard | Context | Requirement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maximum aerobic capacity (VO2max) | At least 32.9 ml·min⁻¹·kg⁻¹ | Missions with microgravity EVA | V1 4001 |
| Maximum aerobic capacity (VO2max) | At least 36.5 ml·min⁻¹·kg⁻¹ | Missions with celestial surface EVA | V1 4002 |
| Nutrient intake | At least 90% of the calculated requirement, from age, sex, body mass, height and an activity factor of 1.25 | In mission | V1 4020 |
| Skeletal muscle strength | At least 80% of baseline | In mission | V1 4024 |
| Bone mass | Hip and spine at least 95% of pre-mission values, femoral neck at least 90% | Not measurable in flight. Sky estimates it from exercise duration and medicine intake. | V1 4027 |
| Total radiation exposure | Below 600 mSv | Whole career | V1 4030 |
| Short-term radiation exposure | Below 250 mSv | Solar particle events | V1 4031 |
| Short-term radiation exposure | Below 20 mSv per mission year | Nuclear technologies, such as radioisotope power systems and fission reactors | V1 4032 |
| Fitness-for-duty sensorimotor | Operationally defined | Depends on the mission | · |
| Behavioral health and cognition | Behavioral health evaluation | In mission | · |
| Hematology and immunology | Stay inside accepted critical values | In mission | · |
Other thresholds Sky uses, such as limits per hazard, are personal-baseline rules that carry their own source in the app.
From signal to action
Detection is deterministic code. The language model only explains and drafts. The people on board decide.
Collect
Gather data from synchronised machines and tools, or ask the astronaut for a manual entry.
Automatic or by askingDetect
Compare each reading with that astronaut's own baseline: median and spread, trend, change points.
DeterministicRecommend
Link signals across systems, pick one action from the ISS Medical Checklist, and explain why in plain language. Warn the flight surgeon and the crew when risk is shared.
Local AI explainsConfirm
Nothing runs until a person presses Confirm.
Human in the loopReport
A PDF for the ground team is queued and delivered after the link delay.
20-minute delay
See it in action
Day 170, two weeks of skipped training. Watch the agent connect the signals, then confirm one action yourself.
62Yellow0 to 100
Server snapshot · Day 170 · Simulated data
The question: can the crew stand in Mars gravity, about 0.38 of Earth's? NASA Mars fact sheet
Open the interactive demoModules
Three are working. Three are interfaces on the diagram, ready to plug in.
- Working
Cardio
Heart rate, HRV, blood pressure, and the left-ventricle and stroke-volume trend of the first two weeks on the ISS.
- Working
Bone and muscle
Tracks leg readiness and prescribes the exercise dose that rebuilds it.
- Working
Space weather
Solar-storm events from DONKI, used as an input signal to the agent.
- Interface only
Immune and blood
Plug-in point for blood counts and inflammation markers.
- Interface only
Behavior and cognition
Plug-in point for sleep, mood and performance signals.
- Interface only
Environment
Plug-in point for cabin air, radiation and noise.
Planned
Landing mode
In the last hours before landing, guidance switches from training to safety steps, such as assisted standing.
Built to be trusted
Rules the whole project follows.
Offline first
Runs on one laptop. Pull the network cable and nothing changes.
AI does not decide alone
Detection is deterministic. The model explains and drafts. The astronaut confirms.
Every number has a source
Thresholds and weights carry a URL in the code and on screen.
No personal data
Crew data is synthetic, generated to match ranges published in NASA OSDR studies.
AI-generated, not a substitute for a physician.
The same problem on Earth, in Ho Chi Minh City
Concept story for the pitch.
NASA uses bed rest to study the physical changes of spaceflight. A patient who spends two weeks in a hospital bed after surgery faces a related loss of fitness. The approach carries over: compare with the person's own baseline, then prescribe a dose of exercise.
Sources
Each link shows the date it was last opened. Links without a date block automated checks.
- OSD-569Inspiration4 complete blood countchecked 2026-10-18
- OSD-575Metabolic panel and cytokineschecked 2026-10-18
- OSDR data APIProgrammatic access to the studieschecked 2026-10-18
- DONKISpace weather eventschecked 2026-10-18
- ISS Medical Checklist (mirror)Source of recommended actionschecked 2026-10-18
- Circulation 2026Heart changes in the first two weeks on the ISS
- NASA Mars fact sheetSurface gravity, 0.38 of Earth'schecked 2026-11-07
- NASA: bed rest as an analogWhy bed rest is used to study spaceflight
- NASA: five hazards of human spaceflightWhy Sky groups risks into five hazardschecked 2026-11-07
- NASA-STD-3001 Vol. 1 Rev BCrew health limits in the data tablechecked 2026-11-07