A pocket-sized ultrasound device invented in Guilford will once again be hitching a ride into space — this time as part of the much-publicized Inspiration4 flight, the first all-civilian space trip into orbit.
Researchers for NASA want to see if the average person can use Butterfly Network’s handheld ultrasound device to scan their own bodies and interpret the results without help from a medical professional.
“The whole idea is to really determine the ease of use, the simplicity and versatility of the device in order to acquire images when help is millions of miles away,” Rick Mendez, Butterfly’s director of clinical operations, told New Haven Biz.
As they prepare for future missions to the Moon and Mars, NASA and the Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH) at Baylor College of Medicine have been identifying and testing cutting-edge technologies that have the potential to mitigate the health risks of space exploration.
In June, they selected Butterfly’s device, called Butterfly iQ, to travel aboard a SpaceX rocket to the International Space Station.
However, in that mission, scans were done by a trained astronaut who was following scripted instructions to capture the images — which were being monitored in real time by personnel on the ground.
The latest study will see how Butterfly iQ stacks up when used by private citizens, who only have minimal knowledge of the device and general ultrasound technology. The crew will also use the device to chart biological changes before and during spaceflight.
The device hooks into an iPhone and uses computer chips to generate images, replacing larger and more expensive crystals of conventional ultrasound.
Dr. John Martin, Butterfly’s chief medical officer, said the researchers for NASA were drawn not only to the device’s compact size, but by its built-in artificial intelligence capability, which aims to help lay people interpret the scans on their own.
This will be especially helpful for deeper space exploration, such as the Mars mission, where ground communication with Earth will be limited, Martin said.
The goal is for someone to be able to use the device when the only instructions are “here’s how you place it over your heart, or your neck, and this is what you’re looking for,” Mendez explained.
The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft is scheduled to launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Sept. 15 and is expected to spend three days in orbit.
Jared Isaacman, the 38-year-old billionaire CEO of the payment processing company Shift4 Payments, purchased the private flight from SpaceX and is leading the mission.
Isaacman told Time magazine last month that he “wanted to bring in everyday people and energize everyone else around the idea of opening up spaceflight to more and more of us.”
Joining Isaacman on the crew are a physician assistant and childhood cancer survivor; a geology professor; and a data engineer and U.S. Air Force veteran. An upcoming Netflix documentary will chronicle the flight.
The ultrasound research is one of several health experiments the crew will participate in during the mission, according to an Inspiration4 news release. SpaceX, TRISH, and Weill Cornell Medicine are conducting the studies.
Connecticut medtech entrepreneur Jonathan Rothberg founded Butterfly Network in 2011. The company went public earlier this year in a SPAC merger that valued the company at $1.5 billion.
Contact Natalie Missakian at news@newhavenbiz.com
