This National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Research Announcement (NRA), entitled “Human Exploration Research Opportunities (HERO)–2024”, solicits applied research in support of NASA’s Human Research Program (HRP). The research will fall into one or more categories corresponding to the HRP’s five Elements: Space Radiation, Human Health Countermeasures, Exploration Medical Capability, Human Factors and Behavioral Performance, and Research Operations and Integration. This NRA covers all aspects of research to provide human health and performance countermeasures, knowledge, technologies, and tools to enable safe, reliable, and productive human space exploration.
Promoting the full and open sharing of data with research communities, private industry, academia, and the general public is one of NASA’s longstanding core values. Sharing and preserving data are central to protecting the integrity of science by facilitating validation of results and to advancing science by broadening the value of research data to other disciplines and society at large (NASA Plan for Increasing Access to the Results of Scientific Research). There is a growing realization that collaboration and the aggregation and sharing of data is the best way to tackle extremely large and interesting science questions, including those related to human spaceflight, that more and more frequently rely on big data and advanced data science and analytic techniques. Research data collected during the conduct of NASA’s funded research projects represent a unique, valuable, and not easily replicable national resource and long-term research asset. Data management is viewed as an important part of research activities and includes NASA’s right to review interim data and/or obtain delivery of data to a NASA archive.
The goal of the HRP is to provide human health and performance countermeasures, knowledge, technologies, and tools to enable safe, reliable, and productive human space exploration. The scope of this goal includes both the successful completion of exploration missions and the preservation of health over the astronaut’s lifetime. The HRP contains five Elements: Space Radiation, Human Health Countermeasures, Exploration Medical Capability, Human Factors and Behavioral Performance, and Research Operations and Integration.
Details of the solicited research opportunities, including proposal due dates, are provided in appendices to this NRA, which will be posted through the NASA Solicitation and Proposal Integrated Review and Evaluation System (NSPIRES). It is anticipated that several response area appendices will be issued throughout the year as needed.
Close: Sep. 30, 2024
REFER TO APPENDICES FOR EXACT DUE DATES.
HERO Appendix E: NASA Human Research Program Flagship2 Opportunity
Required Step-1 Proposals Due: August 26, 2024
Step-2 Proposals Due: November 22, 2024
The primary focus of this solicitation is to form a research team, a Virtual NASA Specialized Center for Research (VNSCOR) that will address concerns specific to the provision of operationally-feasible, mission-relevant DCS protection protocols for lunar and Mars exploration. HRP will select several proposal teams across which research objectives can be coordinated, and one team to serve as overall VNSCOR team leadership, directing the standardization and integration of data across teams, aligning schedules with NASA, and coordinating reporting across teams. Teams proposing to lead the VNSCOR should specifically state their interest.
All categories of United States (U.S.) institutions are eligible to submit proposals in response to this NRA. Principal Investigators may collaborate with universities, Federal Government laboratories, the private sector, non-profits, and state and local government laboratories. In all such arrangements, the applying entity is expected to be responsible for administering the project according to the management approach presented in the proposal.