NASA, in collaboration with Google, is developing a cutting-edge medical assistant known as the Crew Medical Officer Digital Assistant (CMO-DA). This system is designed for autonomous diagnosis and treatment of medical issues in space, particularly when communication with Earth is unavailable or when there is no doctor onboard.

According to PCMag.

CMO-DA operates within the Vertex AI environment from Google Cloud and supports multimodal interaction — voice, text, and images. NASA retains control over the assistant's source code and is actively involved in model customization. The platform also provides access to models from third-party developers.

The system has already been tested in three scenarios: ear pain, side pain, and ankle injury. All cases were evaluated by physicians, including astronauts. Diagnostic accuracy ranged from 74% to 88% depending on the scenario.

This project is being executed under a fixed contract with Google Public Sector, encompassing cloud services, development infrastructure, and model training. In the future, NASA plans to incorporate additional data sources, including medical devices, and adapt the model to microgravity conditions.

CMO-DA is part of NASA's strategy for a gradual shift towards autonomous medicine in space. If successfully validated in orbit, this technology could be adapted for use on Earth, especially in isolated regions or areas with limited access to medical services.

Recently, NASA also shared insights on how it has supported the Curiosity rover's operations for 13 years.