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By NASA
4 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Researchers Kelly Gilkey, Cy Peverill, Daniel Phan, Chase Haddix, and Ariel Tokarz test portable, handheld X-ray systems for use during future long-duration space missions at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland on Friday, March 21, 2025. Credit: NASA/Sara Lowthian-Hanna As NASA plans future human exploration missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond, new and unique challenges emerge — like communication delays and limited return-to-Earth options — so enhanced medical care capabilities are critical. Crews will need non-invasive imaging technology to diagnose medical conditions, like broken bones or dental injuries.
Scientists at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland are testing portable, handheld X-ray systems for use during future extended space missions. Having portable X-ray capabilities aboard spacecraft would allow astronauts to immediately assess and treat potential injuries or identify equipment issues without having to disassemble the gear.
“Technological innovations like that of the mini-X-ray will help keep our astronauts healthy as we endeavor farther into space than ever before,” said acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy. “Future missions to the Moon and Mars will be safer due to the research of our scientists at NASA Glenn.”
NASA reviewed more than 200 commercial systems — analyzing size, weight, image quality, ease-of-use, cost, and safety — and selected three systems for further testing: MinXray, Remedi, and Fujifilm.
“We’re working to provide evidence on why a mini-X-ray system should be included in future space exploration,” said Dr. Chase Haddix, a senior biomedical engineering research contractor working for Universities Space Research Association at NASA Glenn. “These X-rays could be used to detect both clinical and non-clinical diagnostics, meaning they can check an astronaut’s body or identify the location of a tear in an astronaut suit.”
Researchers capture X-ray images of a shape memory alloy rover tire at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland on Friday, March 21, 2025. Credit: NASA/Sara Lowthian-Hanna NASA Glenn is collaborating with other centers, including NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston and NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, and radiography experts at University Hospitals and Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland.
“We’re fortunate to have enthusiastic medical and radiography experts right here in our community,” said Dr. Cy Peverill, project task lead at NASA Glenn. “Their knowledge and experience are invaluable as we work to test medical technologies that could significantly improve management of astronaut health on future missions to the Moon or Mars.”
Cuyahoga Community College contributed anatomical phantoms, which are lifelike models of the human body, in its radiography laboratory on the Western Campus and dental hygiene clinical facility at the Metropolitan Campus. Faculty and students consulted with NASA researchers on essential imaging principles, including patient positioning, image acquisition, and image quality.
University Hospitals is partnering with NASA Glenn on a medical study with real patients to compare the performance of the X-ray systems against hospital-grade equipment, focusing on usability, image clarity, and diagnostic accuracy.
“Astronauts live and work in small quarters, much smaller spaces than in a hospital,” Haddix said. “The system must be easy to use since astronauts may not be experienced in radiography. The data from these tests will guide the selection of the most suitable system for future missions.”
Researchers capture X-ray images of an astronaut spacesuit at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland on Friday, March 21, 2025. Credit: NASA/Sara Lowthian-Hanna Using portable X-rays to improve health care in inaccessible areas is not new, with systems deployed to diagnose medical issues in places such as base camps in Nepal and remote villages in South Africa. NASA researchers theorize that if these systems are successful in high elevations and extreme temperatures on Earth, perhaps they are durable enough for space missions.
Glenn researchers will continue to collect data from all collaborators, including from an X-ray system sourced by SpaceX that launched in April during the Fram2 mission. The crew captured the first human X-ray images in space during their four-day mission to low Earth orbit. NASA plans to select a device near the end of 2025 and will test the chosen system aboard the International Space Station in 2026 or early 2027.
The Mars Campaign Office at NASA Headquarters in Washington and the agency’s Human Research Program at NASA Johnson fund this work as both organizations focus on pursuing technologies and methods to support safe, productive human space travel.
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By Amazing Space
Live Video from the International Space Station (Seen From The NASA ISS Live Stream)
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By NASA
Advancing Single-Photon Sensing Image Sensors to Enable the Search for Life Beyond Earth
A NASA-sponsored team is advancing single-photon sensing Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) detector technology that will enable future NASA astrophysics space missions to search for life on other planets. As part of their detector maturation program, the team is characterizing sensors before, during, and after high-energy radiation exposure; developing novel readout modes to mitigate radiation-induced damage; and simulating a near-infrared CMOS pixel prototype capable of detecting individual photons.
Single-photon sensing and photon-number resolving CMOS image sensors: a 9.4 Mpixel sensor (left) and a 16.7 Mpixel sensor (right). Credit: CfD, RIT Are we alone in the universe? This age-old question has inspired scientific exploration for centuries. If life on other planets evolves similarly to life on Earth, it can imprint its presence in atmospheric spectral features known asbiosignatures. They include absorption and emission lines in the spectrum produced by oxygen, carbon dioxide, methane, and other molecules that could indicate conditions which can support life. A future NASA astrophysics mission, the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO), will seek to find biosignatures in the ultraviolet, optical, and near-infrared (NIR) spectra of exoplanet atmospheres to look for evidence that life may exist elsewhere in the universe.
HWO will need highly sensitive detector technology to detect these faint biosignatures on distant exoplanets. The Single-Photon Sensing Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (SPSCMOS) image sensor is a promising technology for this application. These silicon-based sensors can detect and resolve individual optical-wavelength photons using a low-capacitance, high-gain floating diffusion sense node. They operate effectively over a broad temperature range, including at room temperature. They have near-zero read noise, are tolerant to radiation, and generate very little unwanted signal—such as dark current. When cooled to 250 K, the dark current drops to just one electron every half-hour. If either the read noise or dark current is too high, the sensor will fail to detect the faint signals that biosignatures produce.
A research team at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) Center for Detectors (CfD) is accelerating the readiness of these SPSCMOS sensors for use in space missions through detector technology maturation programs funded by NASA’s Strategic Astrophysics Technology and Early Stage Innovations solicitations. These development programs include several key goals:
Characterize critical detector performance metrics like dark current, quantum efficiency, and read noise before, during, and after exposure to high-energy radiation Develop new readout modes for these sensors to mitigate effects from short-term and long-term radiation damage Design a new NIR version of the sensor using Technology Computer-Aided Design (TCAD) software SPSCMOS sensors operate similarly to traditional CMOS image sensors but are optimized to detect individual photons—an essential capability for ultra-sensitive space-based observations, such as measuring the gases in the atmospheres of exoplanets. Incoming photons enter the sensor and generate free charges (electrons) in the sensor material. These charges collect in a pixel’s storage well and eventually transfer to a low-capacitance component called the floating diffusion (FD) sense node where each free charge causes a large and resolved voltage shift. This voltage shift is then digitized to read the signal.
Experiments that measure sensor performance in a space relevant environment use a vacuum Dewar and a thermally-controlled mount to allow precise tuning of the sensors temperature. The Dewar enables testing at conditions that match the expected thermal environment of the HWO instrument, and can even cool the sensor and its on-chip circuits to temperatures colder than any prior testing reported for this detector family. These tests are critical for revealing performance limitations with respect to detector metrics like dark current, quantum efficiency, and read noise. As temperatures change, the electrical properties of on-chip circuits can also change, which affects the read out of charge in a pixel.
The two figures show results for SPSCMOS devices. The figure on the left shows a photon counting histogram with peaks that correspond to photon number. The figure on the right shows the dark current for a SPSCMOS device before and after exposure to 50 krad of 60 MeV protons. Credit: CfD, RIT The radiation-rich environment for HWO will cause temporary and permanent effects in the sensor. These effects can corrupt the signal measured in a pixel, interrupt sensor clocking and digital logic, and can cause cumulative damage that gradually degrades sensor performance. To mitigate the loss of detector sensitivity throughout a mission lifetime, the RIT team is developing new readout modes that are not available in commercial CMOS sensors. These custom modes sample the signal over time (a “ramp” acquisition) to enable the detection and removal of cosmic ray artifacts. In one mode, when the system identifies an artifact, it segments the signal ramp and selectively averages the segments to reconstruct the original signal—preserving scientific data that would otherwise be lost. In addition, a real-time data acquisition system monitors the detector’s power consumption, which may change from the accumulation of damage throughout a mission. The acquisition system records these shifts and communicates with the detector electronics to adjust voltages and maintain nominal operation. These radiation damage mitigation strategies will be evaluated during a number of test programs at ground-based radiation facilities. The tests will help identify unique failure mechanisms that impact SPSCMOS technology when it is exposed to radiation equivalent to the dose expected for HWO.
Custom acquisition electronics (left) that will control the sensors during radiation tests, and an image captured using this system (right). Credit: CfD, RIT While existing SPSCMOS sensors are limited to detecting visible light due to their silicon-based design, the RIT team is developing the world’s first NIR single-photon photodiode based on the architecture used in the optical sensors. The photodiode design starts as a simulation in TCAD software to model the optical and electrical properties of the low-capacitance CMOS architecture. The model simulates light-sensitive circuits using both silicon and Mercury Cadmium Telluride (HgCdTe or MCT) material to determine how well the pixel would measure photo-generated charge if a semiconductor foundry physically fabricated it. It has 2D and 3D device structures that convert light into electrical charge, and circuits to control charge transfer and signal readout with virtual probes that can measure current flow and electric potential. These simulations help to evaluate the key mechanisms like the conversion of light into electrons, storing and transferring the electrons, and the output voltage of the photodiode sampling circuit.
In addition to laboratory testing, the project includes performance evaluations at a ground-based telescope. These tests allow the sensor to observe astronomical targets that cannot be fully replicated in lab. Star fields and diffuse nebulae challenge the detector’s full signal chain under real sky backgrounds with faint flux levels, field-dependent aberrations, and varying seeing conditions. These observations help identify performance limitations that may not be apparent in controlled laboratory measurements.
In January 2025, a team of researchers led by PhD student Edwin Alexani used an SPSCMOS-based camera at the C.E.K. Mees Observatory in Ontario County, New York. They observed star cluster M36 to evaluate the sensor’s photometric precision, and the Bubble Nebula in a narrow-band H-alpha filter. The measured dark current and read noise were consistent with laboratory results.
The team observed photometric reference stars to estimate the quantum efficiency (QE) or the ability for the detector to convert photons into signal. The calculated QE agreed with laboratory measurements, despite differences in calibration methods.
The team also observed the satellite STARLINK-32727 as it passed through the telescope’s field of view and measured negligible persistent charge—residual signal that can remain in detector pixels after exposure to a bright source. Although the satellite briefly produced a bright streak across several pixels due to reflected sunlight, the average latent charge in affected pixels was only 0.03 e–/pix – well below both the sky-background and sensor’s read noise.
Images captured at the C.E.K. Mees Observatory. Left: The color image shows M36 in the Johnson color filters B (blue), V (green), and R (red) bands (left). Right: Edwin Alexani and the SPSCMOS camera (right). Credit: : CfD, RIT As NASA advances and matures the HWO mission, SPSCMOS technology promises to be a game-changer for exoplanet and general astrophysics research. These sensors will enhance our ability to detect and analyze distant worlds, bringing us one step closer to answering one of humanity’s most profound questions: are we alone?
For additional details, see the entry for this project on NASA TechPort.
Project Lead(s): Dr. Donald F. Figer, Future Photon Initiative and Center for Detectors, Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), supported by engineer Justin Gallagher and a team of students.
Sponsoring Organization(s): NASA Astrophysics Division, Strategic Astrophysics Technology (SAT) Program and NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD), Early Stage Innovations (ESI) Program
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Last Updated Sep 02, 2025 Related Terms
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