NASA announced on Sep 14, 2026 that it had selected 12 new investigations to support human explorers in space. Six, funded through the agency's Space Crops grants, focus on producing food off-planet; the other six fall under the Biological and Physical Sciences Division's precision health focus. Four of the crop proposals examine edible plants and how growth, physiology and associated microbial communities respond to space or planetary conditions. One studies resurrection plants' tolerance of extreme dryness, and one builds on International Space Station work on algal genes whose expression is modified by spaceflight.

The health proposals cover lunar dust exposure and respiratory, immune and inflammation responses; repurposed drugs to mitigate space travel's health effects; radiation combined with other stressors and age-relevant characteristics; and molecular and cellular changes affecting gene expression or protein function. NASA said the work aims to identify mitigation measures and early-warning detection systems for crews.

Principal investigators come from 10 institutions across eight states, and nine awards go to investigators receiving Space Biology Program funding for the first time. NASA said that when fully implemented, more than $7 million in grant money will be awarded throughout fiscal years 2026–2030, responding to proposals submitted to ROSES-2024.