NASA Shares Station Research Today Supporting Moon, Mars Tomorrow

The International Space Station has been a bustling workspace throughout 2026, hosting experiments that lay groundwork for missions to the Moon and beyond. NASA’s Artemis II mission in April was the first crewed flight around the Moon in more than 50 years, validating key systems for deep space exploration, while ISS research continues to support those goals by testing technologies, studying human adaptation to long-duration spaceflight, and ensuring crews can live and work safely in deep space.

The station is testing several specific systems. The E4D exercise device is a compact, versatile system that supports various exercises and can simulate different gravity levels, addressing the 1%–1.5% bone density loss astronauts experience per month in microgravity. The IVGEN Mini investigation evaluates producing IV fluids from the station’s potable water, overcoming the 16-month shelf life of commercial IV fluids and reducing launch mass and volume. The TUSK experiment studies how microgravity affects delicate robotic operations, potentially improving autonomous systems that free up astronauts’ time.

Research aboard the ISS, along with Artemis and Moon Base programs, will demonstrate NASA’s readiness for sustained lunar exploration and eventual Mars missions, fine-tuning technologies to reduce their footprint ahead of travel beyond low Earth orbit.