11/19/2025
Pushing the Boundaries of Medical Care — From Earth to Space 🚀
Thornhill Medical is proud to be working with NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration as it explores new frontiers in prolonged in-flight medical care for future human space missions.
Beyond Low Earth Orbit, mission safety will depend on life-support technologies that can sustain advanced oxygen delivery, ventilation, and monitoring for three days or more—the time it takes to return to Earth in the event of a medical emergency.
Looking to the future of medical care in space, NASA is testing Thornhill Medical’s MOVES® SLC™ as a potential solution. That’s because MOVES SLC’s oxygen efficiency, oxygen generation capabilities, and additional integrated functions make it a potential solution to this “prolonged space hold/transport” challenge, while reducing space, weight, and risk.
Thornhill Medical’s Field Operations team recently led hands-on training sessions with NASA personnel, supporting rigorous testing as the agency evaluates the feasibility of MOVES SLC for delivering prolonged advanced care in the challenging environments associated with space exploration.
“The outer space environment presents unique challenges for both healthcare personnel and the medical devices they rely on," explains Derek Watt, Thornhill Medical's Vice President, Field Operations (pictured with Thornhill FieldOps colleague Tyler Lucock at NASA’s Johnson Space Center). "We are pleased to support NASA’s test and evaluation of MOVES® SLC™ and their efforts to establish systems for advanced patient care for future, far-reaching space exploration missions.”
We’re proud to see our technology contributing to NASA’s vision for the future, and to the evolution of medical care in the most extreme environments on Earth and beyond.
