NASA’s Human Research Program (HRP) is dedicated to discovering the best methods and technologies to support safe, productive human space travel. HRP enables space exploration by reducing the risks to astronaut health and performance using ground research facilities, the International Space Station, and analog environments. This leads to the development and delivery of a program focused on: human health, performance, and habitability standards; countermeasures and risk mitigation solutions; and advanced habitability and medical support technologies. HRP supports innovative, scientific human research by funding more than 300 research grants to respected universities, hospitals and NASA centers to over 200 researchers in more than 30 states.

Countless galaxies vie for attention in this dazzling image of the Fornax Cluster, some appearing only as pinpricks of light while others dominate the foreground. One of these is the lenticular galaxy NGC 1316. The turbulent past of this much-studied galaxy has left it with a delicate structure of loops, arcs and rings that astronomers have now imaged in greater detail than ever before with the VLT Survey Telescope. This image was processed with the VST-Tube data reduction program. Credit: ESO/A. Grado and L. Limatola

Human intestinal organoids (HIOs) generated in the hydrogel matrix differentiate into mature intestinal tissue and present specialized human intestinal cell types, such as enteroendocrine cells (CHGA; red), after transplantation into an animal. Credit: Ricardo Cruz-Acuña, Georgia Tech

Scientists from Boson College and Harvard turned to copper to create a first-of-its-kind iridate – Cu2IrO3 – where the natural magnetic order is disrupted, a state known as geometric frustration. Credit: Boston College