The tool, which uses Google Cloud’s Vertex AI environment and a mixture of open-source large language models (LLMs), is specifically tailored to the medical challenges of long-distance space travel.

As tech giants like Apple turn their eyes towards AI-powered healthcare, Google is now building a new AI doctor in collaboration with NASA. But you might never get a chance to use the new model, unless you're planning a trip to Mars, that is.

According to the NASA proof-of-concept slide deck, first spotted by TechCrunch, the project aims to tackle the problems of multi-year, long-distance space travel, dealing with issues like no real-time communication with Earth, no way to send medical samples back home, and the possibility of no evacuations in an emergency. For reference, Mars missions would have a lag of up to 223 minutes each way, making conventional real-time medical consultation near impossible.

The new tool, dubbed the Crew Medical Officer Digital Assistant (CMO-DA), will help provide medical advice and diagnostics completely independently of Earth. Per the slides, NASA eventually plans for the tool to incorporate things like ultrasound imaging and additional sources of biometric data in later versions.

The CMO-DA comes as part of the Artemis program, a NASA-led Moon exploration initiative, with the long-term goal of creating a permanent base on the Moon and making human missions to Mars. The tool runs on Google Cloud’s Vertex AI environment and uses open-source language models (LLMs) such as Llama 3 and Mistral-3 Small. The tool's source code is entirely owned by NASA, according to a Google spokesperson speaking to TechCrunch.