Sans remains an important and unmitigated risk to long-duration spaceflight. Current hypotheses suggest that the lack of gravity leads to fluid shifting towards the head, resulting in congestion…

NASA awarded a $940,352 grant to Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), the research division of The General Hospital Corporation, on April 1, 2020, to support research on Spaceflight Associated Neuro-ocular Syndrome (SANS), a significant medical concern for long-duration spaceflight missions. Under this non-set-aside grant with a completion deadline of March 31, 2026, MGH will develop and provide a comprehensive toolkit for detailed neurophysiological and fluid shift assessment and monitoring to support NASA's planned 30-day head-down tilt (HDT) experiments at the ENVIHAB facility in Cologne, Germany. The research aims to test countermeasures for SANS, which current hypotheses suggest results from gravity-induced fluid shifting toward the head, causing cranial, vascular, and lymphatic congestion or elevated pressures.

MGH's proposed measurements and diagnostic tools will complement standard ocular measures currently used for SANS diagnosis and monitoring, including optical coherence tomography (OCT), ocular ultrasound, fundoscopy, and visual acuity assessments. As a premier academic medical center and Harvard Medical School teaching hospital, MGH brings extensive expertise in biomedical research and translational science to this effort, positioning the organization to deliver sophisticated neurophysiological assessment capabilities that will enhance NASA's understanding of SANS pathophysiology and the effectiveness of proposed countermeasures for protecting astronaut health during extended spaceflights.

Sans remains an important and unmitigated risk to long-duration spaceflight. Current hypotheses suggest that the lack of gravity leads to fluid shifting towards the head, resulting in congestion and/or elevated pressures in the cranial, vascular and/or lymphatic compartments. NASA is proposing to conduct 30-day head-down tilt (HDT) experiments to test sans countermeasures at the envihab facility in cologne, germany. We propose to provide numerous key measurements in support of these planned 30-day missions. We will focus in particular on providing a toolkit for detailed neurophysiological and fluid shift assessment and monitoring suitable for measuring both sans- and countermeasure-related changes. These tools will be designed to complement the standard ocular measures used for sans diagnosis and monitoring (e.g., OCT, ocular US, fundoscopy, visual acuity).