Dr. Basner's Contributions to Space Research

Work with Space Agencies and Missions

Dr. Basner has performed several studies on the International Space Station and in space analog environments including NASA’s Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA), the Hawai’i Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS), the Russian Mars500 simulated mission to Mars, and the Antarctic research stations Concordia, Neumayer III, and Halley. Dr. Basner was one of the 10 selected principal investigators of NASA’s TWINS study, in which Scott Kelly spent 340 days in space while his twin brother Mark Kelly, also a retired Astronaut, was investigated on Earth. In this interdisciplinary research project that spanned from molecular mechanisms to physiology and behavior, Dr. Basner was responsible for assessing cognitive performance in the twins. Dr. Basner’s project “Neurostructural and Cognitive Changes During Long Duration Low-Earth Orbit Missions: Cognition” was selected as one of 14 international projects to investigate the effects of long-duration spaceflight on 10 more astronauts. 

Dr. Basner was also one of 5 TRISH-funded investigators who participated in SpaceX’s historic all-commercial crew mission (Inspiration 4), where he investigated changes in cognitive performance and crew physiology in relation to the spacecraft environment. Dr. Basner is a member of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) and a member of the Aerospace Medical Association (AsMA). 

Recognition

In September 2025, Dr. Basner was awarded the Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). This prestigious agency award was established in 1961 to recognize individual or team efforts that lead to a key scientific discovery, a fundamental contribution to a scientific field, or a significant enhancement of scientific understanding. Former recipients include multiple Nobel laureates.

Cognition in Spaceflight

Dr. Basner developed, together with his colleagues Dr. David F. Dinges and Dr. Ruben C. Gur and with collaborators from Pulsar Informatics Inc., the Cognition test battery for spaceflight. This development was funded by both NASA and the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI). Cognition consists of 10 brief, validated cognitive tests that cover a range of cognitive domains. The tests were specifically designed for the high-performing Astronaut population. Brain regions primarily recruited by the individual test have been established with fMRI. The Cognition battery is part of NASA’s Behavioral Health and Performance Standard Measures, a set of measures that is routinely performed by all astronauts on ISS missions and by research subjects in space analog environments. In 2018, Dr. Basner was awarded the International Space Station Innovation Award for Cognition by the American Astronautical Society. In 2016, the original paper describing Cognition received the Journal Publication Award for the Most Outstanding Space Medicine Article published in the Aerospace Medicine and Human Performance Journal by the Space Medicine Association.