Autonomous Interplanetary Pharmaceutical CubeSat

For strong presence in deep space human exploration and human presence, the International Space Exploration Coordination Group (ISECG) published a global roadmap for crewed exploration of deep space until 2040. According to the roadmap, by mid-2020's, humans will be continuously present in lunar vicinity and by 2040 first human beings will step foot on Martian Surface as the first step of colonization [1].

However, space is a hostile environment for humans and yet we still have a limited knowledge about the effects of deep space environment on humans and how we can mitigate these effects. As the interplanetary journey will be significantly longer than current crewed missions to the International Space Station (ISS), humanity may need transportable medicines and proteins with a long lifespan.

The current issue with pharmaceuticals is that they degrade over time depending on the amount of radiation they are exposed and the space environment they are at. There are various studies, like ISS and Visualising In-Space TXTL Astropharmaceuticals (VITA) working to get a deeper understanding about the space environment and performance of pharmaceuticals in space.

Our knowledge of how pharmaceuticals behave in space is only based on experiments carried out at Low Earth Orbit. The aim of the research is to work on a fully autonomous, pharmaceutical CubeSat with an interplanetary trajectory that will last its operation for several years. [1] International Space Exploration Coordination Group, "The Global Exploration Roadmap," vol. 3,

2018.