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By NASA
5 Min Read From Supercomputers to Wind Tunnels: NASA’s Road to Artemis II
Of the many roads leading to successful Artemis missions, one is paved with high-tech computing chips called superchips. Along the way, a partnership between NASA wind tunnel engineers, data visualization scientists, and software developers verified a quick, cost-effective solution to improve NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket for the upcoming Artemis II mission. This will be the first crewed flight of the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft, on an approximately 10-day journey around the Moon.
A high-speed network connection between high-end computing resources at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing facility and the Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel, both located at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, is enabling a collaboration to improve the rocket for the Artemis II mission. During the Artemis I test flight, the SLS rocket experienced higher-than-expected vibrations near the solid rocket booster attach points, caused by unsteady airflow between the gap.
One solution proposed for Artemis II was adding four strakes. A strake is a thin, fin-like structure commonly used on aircraft to improve unsteady airflow and stability. Adding them to the core stage minimizes the vibration of components.
The strake solution comes from previous tests in the Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel, where NASA engineers applied an Unsteady Pressure Sensitive Paint (uPSP) technique to SLS models. The paint measures changes over time in aerodynamic pressures on air and spacecraft.
This supercomputer simulation peers down at a close-up of the SLS rocket during ascent. The force of friction is represented in greens, yellows, and blues. A six-foot-long strake flanking each booster’s forward connection point on the SLS intertank smooths vibrations induced by airflow, represented by purples, yellows, and reds. The white streams represent a contour plot of density magnitude, highlighting the change of density in the air.
Credit: NASA/NAS/Gerrit-Daniel Stich, Michael Barad, Timothy Sandstrom, Derek Dalle It is sprayed onto test models, and high-speed cameras capture video of the fluctuating brightness of the paint, which corresponds to the local pressure fluctuations on the model. Capturing rapid changes in pressure across large areas of the SLS model helps engineers understand the fast-changing environment. The data is streamed to the NASA Advanced Supercomputing facility via a high-speed network connection.
“This technique lets us see wind tunnel data in much finer detail than ever before. With that extra clarity, engineers can create more accurate models of how rockets and spacecraft respond to stress, helping design stronger, safer, and more efficient structures,” said Thomas Steva, lead engineer, SLS sub-division in the Aerodynamics Branch at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
For the SLS configuration with the strakes, the wind tunnel team applied the paint to a scale model of the rocket. Once the camera data streamed to the supercomputing facility, a team of visualization and data analysis experts displayed the results on the hyperwall visualization system, giving the SLS team an unprecedented look at the effect of the strakes on the vehicle’s performance. Teams were able to interact with and analyze the paint data.
NASA’s high-end computing capability and facilities, paired with unique facilities at Ames, give us the ability to increase productivity by shortening timelines, reducing costs, and strengthening designs in ways that directly support safe human spaceflight.
Kevin Murphy
NASA's Chief Science Data Officer
“NASA’s high-end computing capability and facilities, paired with unique facilities at Ames, give us the ability to increase productivity by shortening timelines, reducing costs, and strengthening designs in ways that directly support safe human spaceflight,” said Kevin Murphy, NASA’s chief science data officer and lead for the agency’s High-End Computing Capability portfolio at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “We’re actively using this capability to help ensure Artemis II is ready for launch.”
Leveraging the high-speed connection between the Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel and NASA Advanced Supercomputing facility reduces the typical data processing time from weeks to just hours.
For years, the NASA Advancing Supercomputing Division’s in-house Launch, Ascent, and Vehicle Aerodynamics software has helped play a role in designing and certifying the various SLS vehicle configurations.
“Being able to work with the hyperwall and the visualization team allows for in-person, rapid engagement with data, and we can make near-real-time tweaks to the processing,” said Lara Lash, an aerospace engineering researcher in the Experimental Aero-Physics Branch at NASA Ames who leads the uPSP work.
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This video shows two simulations of the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket using NASA’s Launch Ascent and Vehicle Aerodynamics solver. For the Artemis II test flight, a pair of six-foot-long strakes will be added to the core stage of SLS that will smooth vibrations induced by airflow during ascent. The top simulation is without strakes while the bottom shows the airflow with strakes. The green and yellow colors on the rocket’s surface show how the airflow scrapes against the rocket’s skin. The white and gray areas show changes in air density between the boosters and core stage, with the brightest regions marking shock waves. The strakes reduce vibrations and improves the safety of the integrated vehicle. NASA/NAS/Gerrit-Daniel Stich, Michael Barad, Timothy Sandstrom, Derek Dalle This time, NASA Advanced Supercomputing researchers used the Cabeus supercomputer, which is the agency’s largest GPU-based computing cluster containing 350 NVIDIA superchip nodes. The supercomputer produced a series of complex computational fluid dynamic simulations that helped explain the underlying physics of the strake addition and filled in gaps between areas where the wind tunnel cameras and sensors couldn’t reach.
This truly was a joint effort across multiple teams.
“The beauty of the strake solution is that we were able to add strakes to improve unsteady aerodynamics, and associated vibration levels of components in the intertank,” said Kristin Morgan, who manages the strake implementation effort for the SLS at Marshall.
A team from Boeing is currently installing the strakes on the rocket at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida and are targeting October 2025 to complete installation.
Through Artemis, NASA will send astronauts to explore the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and build the foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars.
To learn more about Artemis, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/artemis
News Media Contact
Jonathan Deal
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
256.544.0034
jonathan.e.deal@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Sep 18, 2025 EditorLee MohonContactJonathan DealLocationMarshall Space Flight Center Related Terms
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By NASA
NASA’s Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) rocket poised to send four astronauts from Earth on a journey around the Moon next year may appear identical to the Artemis I SLS rocket. On closer inspection, though, engineers have upgraded the agency’s Moon rocket inside and out to improve performance, reliability, and safety.
SLS flew a picture perfect first mission on the Artemis I test flight, meeting or exceeding parameters for performance, attitude control, and structural stability to an accuracy of tenths or hundredths of a percent as it sent an uncrewed Orion thousands of miles beyond the Moon. It also returned volumes of invaluable flight data for SLS engineers to analyze to drive improvements.
Teams with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems integrate the SLS (Space Launch System) Moon rocket with the solid rocket boosters onto mobile launcher 1 inside High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in March 2025. Artemis II is the first crewed test flight under NASA’s Artemis campaign and is another step toward missions on the lunar surface and helping the agency prepare for future human missions to Mars.NASA/Frank Michaux For Artemis II, the major sections of SLS remain unchanged – a central core stage, four RS-25 main engines, two five-segment solid rocket boosters, the ICPS (interim cryogenic propulsion stage), a launch vehicle stage adapter to hold the ICPS, and an Orion stage adapter connecting SLS to the Orion spacecraft. The difference is in the details.
“While we’re proud of our Artemis I performance, which validated our overall design, we’ve looked at how SLS can give our crews a better ride,” said John Honeycutt, NASA’s SLS Program manager. “Some of our changes respond to specific Artemis II mission requirements while others reflect ongoing analysis and testing, as well as lessons learned from Artemis I.”
Engineers have outfitted the ICPS with optical targets that will serve as visual cues to the astronauts aboard Orion as they manually pilot Orion around the upper stage and practice maneuvers to inform docking operations for Artemis III.
The Artemis II rocket includes an improved navigation system compared to Artemis I. Its communications capability also has been improved by repositioning antennas on the rocket to ensure continuous communications with NASA ground stations and the U.S. Space Force’s Space Launch Delta 45 which controls launches along the Eastern Range.
An emergency detection system on the ICPS allows the rocket to sense and respond to problems and notify the crew. The flight safety system adds a time delay to the self-destruct system to allow time for Orion’s escape system to pull the capsule to safety in event of an abort.
The separation motors that push the solid rocket booster away after the elements are no longer needed were angled an additional 15 degrees to increase separation clearance as the rest of the rocket speeds by.
Additionally, SLS will jettison the spent boosters four seconds earlier during Artemis II ascent than occurred during Artemis I. Dropping the boosters several seconds closer to the end of their burn will give engineers flight data to correlate with projections that shedding the boosters several seconds sooner will yield approximately 1,600 pounds of payload to Earth orbit for future SLS flights.
Engineers have incorporated additional improvements based on lessons learned from Artemis I. During the Artemis I test flight the SLS rocket experienced higher-than-expected vibrations near the solid rocket booster attachment points that was caused by unsteady airflow.
To steady the airflow, a pair of six-foot-long strakes flanking each booster’s forward connection points on the SLS intertank will smooth vibrations induced by airflow during ascent, and the rocket’s electronics system was requalified to endure higher levels of vibrations.
Engineers updated the core stage power distribution control unit, mounted in the intertank, which controls power to the rocket’s other electronics and protects against electrical hazards.
These improvements have led to an enhanced rocket to support crew as part of NASA’s Golden Age of innovation and exploration.
The approximately 10-day Artemis II test flight is the first crewed flight under NASA’s Artemis campaign. It is another step toward new U.S.-crewed missions on the Moon’s surface that will help the agency prepare to send the first astronauts – Americans – to Mars.
https://www.nasa.gov/artemis
News Media Contact
Jonathan Deal
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
256.631.9126
jonathan.e.deal@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Sep 17, 2025 EditorLee MohonContactJonathan DealLocationMarshall Space Flight Center Related Terms
Space Launch System (SLS) Artemis Artemis 2 Exploration Ground Systems Marshall Space Flight Center Explore More
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By NASA
NASA/Michael DeMocker NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick (left) and Mark Vande Hei (right) prepare to fly out to a landing zone in the Rocky Mountains as part of the certification run for the NASA Artemis course on Aug. 26, 2025. The mountains in northern Colorado offer similar visual illusions and flight environments to the Moon.
The newly certified lander flight training course marks a key milestone in crew training for Artemis missions to the Moon. Through Artemis, NASA will explore the lunar South Pole, paving the way for human exploration farther into the solar system, including Mars.
Learn more about the training course.
Image credit: NASA/Michael DeMocker
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By NASA
5 min read
Avatars for Astronaut Health to Fly on NASA’s Artemis II
An organ chip for conducting bone marrow experiments in space. Emulate NASA announced a trailblazing experiment that aims to take personalized medicine to new heights. The experiment is part of a strategic plan to gather valuable scientific data during the Artemis II mission, enabling NASA to “know before we go” back to the lunar surface and on to Mars.
The AVATAR (A Virtual Astronaut Tissue Analog Response) investigation will use organ-on-a-chip devices, or organ chips, to study the effects of deep space radiation and microgravity on human health. The chips will contain cells from Artemis II astronauts and fly side-by-side with crew on their approximately 10-day journey around the Moon. This research, combined with other studies on the health and performance of Artemis II astronauts, will give NASA insight into how to best protect astronauts as exploration expands to the surface of the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
AVATAR is NASA’s visionary tissue chip experiment that will revolutionize the very way we will do science, medicine, and human multi-planetary exploration.”
Nicky Fox
Associate Administrator, NASA Science Mission Directorate
“AVATAR is NASA’s visionary tissue chip experiment that will revolutionize the very way we will do science, medicine, and human multi-planetary exploration,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Each tissue chip is a tiny sample uniquely created so that we can examine how the effects of deep space act on each human explorer before we go to ensure we pack the appropriate medical supplies tailored to each individual’s needs as we travel back to the Moon, and onward to Mars.”
The investigation is a collaboration between NASA, government agencies, and industry partners, leveraging commercial expertise to gain a deeper understanding of human biology and disease. This research could accelerate innovations in personalized healthcare, both for astronauts in space and patients on Earth.
Organ-on-a-chip: mimic for human health
Organ chips, also referred to as tissue chips or microphysiological systems, are roughly the size of a USB thumb drive and used to help understand — and then predict — how an individual might respond to a variety of stressors, such as radiation or medical treatments, including pharmaceuticals. Essentially, these small devices serve as “avatars” for human organs.
Organ chips contain living human cells that are grown to model the structures and functions of specific regions in human organs, such as the brain, lungs, heart, pancreas, and liver — they can beat like a heart, breathe like a lung, or metabolize like a liver. Tissue chips can be linked together to mimic how organs interact with each other, which is important for understanding how the whole human body responds to stressors or treatments.
Researchers and oncologists use human tissue chips today to understand how a specific patient’s cancer might react to different drugs or radiation treatments. To date, a standard milestone for organs-on-chips has been to keep human cells healthy for 30 days. However, NASA and other research institutions are pushing these boundaries by increasing the longevity of organ chips to a minimum of six months so that scientists can observe diseases and drug therapies over a longer period.
Bone marrow as bellwether
The Artemis II mission will use organ chips created using blood-forming stem and progenitor cells, which originate in the bone marrow, from Artemis II crew members.
Bone marrow is among the organs most sensitive to radiation exposure and, therefore, of central importance to human spaceflight. It also plays a vital role in the immune system, as it is the origin of all adult red and white blood cells, which is why researchers aim to understand how deep space radiation affects this organ.
Studies have shown that microgravity affects the development of bone marrow cells. Although the International Space Station operates in low Earth orbit, which is shielded from most cosmic and solar radiation by the Earth’s magnetosphere, astronauts often experience a loss of bone density. Given that Artemis II crew will be flying beyond this protective layer, AVATAR researchers also seek to understand how the combined stressors of deep space radiation and microgravity affect the developing cells.
To make the bone marrow organ chips, Artemis II astronauts will first donate platelets to a local healthcare system. The cells remaining from their samples will contain a small percentage of bone marrow-derived stem and progenitor cells. NASA-funded scientists at Emulate, Inc., which developed the organ chip technology used in AVATAR, will purify these cells with magnetic beads that bind specifically to them. The purified cells will then be placed in the bone marrow chips next to blood vessel cells and other supporting cells to model the structure and function of the bone marrow.
Investigating how radiation affects the bone marrow can provide insights into how radiation therapy and other DNA-damaging agents, such as chemotherapeutic drugs, impair blood cell formation. Its significance for both spaceflight and medicine on Earth makes the bone marrow an ideal organ to study in the Artemis II AVATAR project.
Passenger for research
“For NASA, organ chips could provide vital data for protecting astronaut health on deep space missions,” said Lisa Carnell, director of NASA’s Biological and Physical Sciences division at NASA Headquarters. “As we go farther and stay longer in space, crew will have only limited access to on-site clinical healthcare. Therefore, it’ll be critical to understand if there are unique and specific healthcare needs of each astronaut, so that we can send the right supplies with them on future missions.”
During the Artemis II mission, the organ chips will be secured in a custom payload developed by Space Tango and mounted inside the capsule during the mission. The battery-powered payload will maintain automated environmental control and media delivery to the organ chips throughout the flight.
For NASA, organ chips could provide vital data for protecting astronaut health on deep space missions.”
Lisa Carnell
Director of NASA’s Biological and Physical Sciences Division
Upon return, researchers at Emulate will examine how spaceflight affected the bone marrow chips by performing single-cell RNA sequencing, a powerful technique that measures how thousands of genes change within individual cells. The scientists will compare data from the flight samples to measurements of crew cells used in a ground-based immunology study happening simultaneously. This will provide the most detailed look at the impact of spaceflight and deep space radiation on developing blood cells to date.
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Biological & Physical Sciences Division (BPS)
NASA’s Biological and Physical Sciences Division pioneers scientific discovery and enables exploration by using space environments to conduct investigations not possible on Earth. Studying biological and physical phenomenon under extreme conditions allows researchers to advance the fundamental scientific knowledge required to go farther and stay longer in space, while also benefitting life on Earth.
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By NASA
CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, alongside NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, and Christina Koch, will launch on the Artemis II mission early next year. The crew will participate in human research studies to provide insights about how the body performs in deep space as part of this mission. Credit: (NASA/James Blair) A sweeping collection of astronaut health studies planned for NASA’s Artemis II mission around the Moon will soon provide agency researchers with a glimpse into how deep space travel influences the human body, mind, and behavior.
During an approximately 10-day mission set to launch in 2026, NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen will collect and store their saliva, don wrist monitors that track movement and sleep, and offer other essential data for NASA’s Human Research Program and other agency science teams.
“The findings are expected to provide vital insights for future missions to destinations beyond low Earth orbit, including Mars,” said Laurie Abadie, an aerospace engineer for the program at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, who strategizes about how to carry out studies on Artemis missions. “The lessons we learn from this crew will help us to more safely accomplish deep space missions and research,” she said.
One study on the Artemis II mission, titled Immune Biomarkers, will explore how the immune system reacts to spaceflight. Another study, ARCHeR (Artemis Research for Crew Health and Readiness), will evaluate how crew members perform individually and as a team throughout the mission, including how easily they can move around within the confined space of their Orion spacecraft. Astronauts also will collect a standardized set of measurements spanning multiple physiological systems to provide a comprehensive snapshot of how spaceflight affects the human body as part of a third study called Artemis II Standard Measures. What’s more, radiation sensors placed inside the Orion capsule cells will collect additional information about radiation shielding functionality and organ-on-a-chip devices containing astronaut cells will study how deep space travel affects humans at a cellular level.
“Artemis missions present unique opportunities, and challenges, for scientific research,” said Steven Platts, chief scientist for human research at NASA Johnson.
Platts explained the mission will need to protect against challenges including exposure to higher radiation levels than on the International Space Station, since the crew will be farther from Earth.
“Together, these studies will allow scientists to better understand how the immune system performs in deep space, teach us more about astronauts’ overall well-being ahead of a Mars mission, and help scientists develop ways to ensure the health and success of crew members,” he said.
Another challenge is the relatively small quarters. The habitable volume inside Orion is about the size of a studio apartment, whereas the space station is larger than a six-bedroom house with six sleeping quarters, two bathrooms, a gym, and a 360-degree view bay window. That limitation affects everything from exercise equipment selection to how to store saliva samples.
Previous research has shown that spaceflight missions can weaken the immune system, reactivate dormant viruses in astronauts, and put the health of the crew at risk. Saliva samples from space-based missions have enabled scientists to assess various viruses, hormones, and proteins that reveal how well the immune system works throughout the mission.
But refrigeration to store such samples will not be an option on this mission due to limited space. Instead, for the Immune Biomarkers study, crew members will supply liquid saliva on Earth and dry saliva samples in space and on Earth to assess changes over time. The dry sample process involves blotting saliva onto special paper that’s stored in pocket-sized booklets.
“We store the samples in dry conditions before rehydrating and reconstituting them,” said Brian Crucian, an immunologist with NASA Johnson who’s leading the study. After landing, those samples will be analyzed by agency researchers.
For the ARCHeR study, participating crew members will wear movement and sleep monitors, called actigraphy devices, before, during, and after the mission. The monitors will enable crew members and flight controllers in mission control to study real-time health and behavioral information for crew safety, and help scientists study how crew members’ sleep and activity patterns affect overall health and performance. Other data related to cognition, behavior, and team dynamics will also be gathered before and after the mission.
“Artemis missions will be the farthest NASA astronauts have ventured into space since the Apollo era,” said Suzanne Bell, a NASA psychologist based at Johnson who is leading the investigation. “The study will help clarify key mission challenges, how astronauts work as a team and with mission control, and the usability of the new space vehicle system.”
Another human research study, Artemis II Standard Measures, will involve collecting survey and biological data before, during, and after the Artemis II mission, though blood collection will only occur before and after the mission. Collecting dry saliva samples, conducting psychological assessments, and testing head, eye, and body movements will also be part of the work. In addition, tasks will include exiting a capsule and conducting simulated moonwalk activities in a pressurized spacesuit shortly after return to Earth to investigate how quickly astronauts recover their sense of balance following a mission.
Crew members will provide data for these Artemis II health studies beginning about six months before the mission and extending for about a month after they return to Earth.
NASA also plans to use the Artemis II mission to help scientists characterize the radiation environment in deep space. Several CubeSats, shoe-box sized satellites that will be deployed into high-Earth orbit during Orion’s transit to the Moon, will probe the near-Earth and deep space radiation environment. Data gathered by these CubeSats will help scientists understand how best to shield crew and equipment from harmful space radiation at various distances from Earth.
Crew members will also keep dosimeters in their pockets that measure radiation exposure in real time. Two additional radiation-sensing technologies will also be affixed to the inside of the Orion spacecraft. One type of device will monitor the radiation environment at different shielding locations and alert crew if they need to seek shelter, such as during a solar storm. A separate collection of four radiation monitors, enabled through a partnership with the German Space Agency DLR, will be placed at various points around the cabin by the crew after launch to gather further information.
Other technologies also positioned inside the spacecraft will gather information about the potential biological effects of the deep space radiation environment. These will include devices called organ chips that house human cells derived from the Artemis II astronauts, through a project called AVATAR (A Virtual Astronaut Tissue Analog Response). After the Artemis II lands, scientists will analyze how these organ chips responded to deep space radiation and microgravity on a cellular level.
Together, the insights from all the human research science collected through this mission will help keep future crews safe as humanity extends missions to the Moon and ventures onward to Mars.
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NASA’s Human Research Program
NASA’s Human Research Program pursues methods and technologies to support safe, productive human space travel. Through science conducted in laboratories, ground-based analogs, commercial missions, the International Space Station and Artemis missions, the program scrutinizes how spaceflight affects human bodies and behaviors. Such research drives the program’s quest to innovate ways that keep astronauts healthy and mission ready as human space exploration expands to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
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