When 911 is millions of miles away: PSU researcher builds AI guardian for Mars missions

Forty minutes. That's how long it takes for a distress signal to travel from Mars to Earth and for a reply to return to the crew. In a medical emergency, that silence is an eternity.

Because astronauts on deep-space missions cannot rely on real-time advice from home base, they need a way to spot health problems before they become crises. A new project at Portland State University is designing the early-warning system astronauts need.

Banafsheh Rekabdar, an assistant professor of Computer Science at Portland State University received funding from NASA to solve this problem. She is developing an intelligent "early warning" system designed to keep astronauts safe when they are too far away to call 911.

Standard medical monitors typically rely on population averages to trigger alarms - alerting only when vital signs cross a universal threshold. But for astronauts living in the extreme, isolated environment of space, a generic "average" isn't always good enough.

Rekabdar's project takes a personalized approach. She's building an artificial intelligence system that learns each individual astronaut's unique physiology - and continually updates that baseline over time as the body adapts during a long mission.

"We're building an AI system that learns each astronaut's 'normal,'" Rekabdar said. "How their heart rate, oxygen levels, breathing, and other metrics change across sleep, exercise, and work in space - and then spots when something looks off for that person, not just compared to an average."

This personalized baseline is critical. By understanding what is normal for a specific crew member during a heavy workout versus a sleep cycle, AI can detect subtle anomalies that a standard monitor might miss, acting as a vigilant digital guardian onboard.

With communication delays rendering real-time telemedicine impossible, astronauts need immediate insight into their own well-being.

"That's why we're creating this AI health display," Rekabdar said. "It acts as an early warning sign for astronauts."

Rekabdar anticipates spending about a year on Phase 1 of the project, focusing on the core development of the AI models and related technology. Looking further ahead, she plans to expand the project into a three-part collaborative team, working alongside public health faculty at Portland State and NASA experts to refine the system for future deployment.

As humanity sets its sights on returning to the Moon and eventually venturing to Mars, innovations from Portland State could ensure that while astronauts may be far from home, they are never flying blind when it comes to their health.