Author: Ellie Star Loehr Date: 01/15/2025

Abstract#

Pulse v0 is a compact, smart wearable that can deliver medicine automatically and safely. In extreme or confined environments like spacecraft, analog habitats, or remote Earth locations giving yourself a shot is difficult. Gravity doesn’t help, spaces are tight, and even small mistakes like needle jams, backflow, or sensor errors can be dangerous. Medicines such as anti-nausea drugs, painkillers, antibiotics, allergy treatments, or even cancer therapies need precise delivery to keep people safe. Pulse v0 is a bench-top prototype, built to test whether a wearable can reliably and safely deliver medication without putting anyone at risk. It allows us to study fluid dynamics, dosing accuracy, and sensor reliability under controlled lab conditions. The design is human-centered, focusing on safety, usability, and reliability. Testing this prototype now generates critical data to guide future iterations, including wearables for space, remote missions, or emergency use. Beyond space, Pulse v0 could have major applications on Earth. It could support medicine delivery in disaster zones, remote research stations, or places without immediate access to doctors. The wearable’s adaptability, autonomy, and modular design create multiple commercial opportunities licensing, research partnerships, or unit sales while also advancing life-saving technology. By showing that automated, safe, and reliable medication delivery is possible in a wearable format, Pulse v0 lays the groundwork for safer space exploration and better emergency care on Earth. Supporting this prototype puts humans first, reduces medical errors, and builds technology that makes extreme environments—and critical care on Earth safer and more accessible for millions.

Problem

Astronauts and crew in extreme or confined environments face a big problem: giving themselves medicine safely is really hard. In space or in tight habitats, there is no gravity to help the medicine flow, and it’s easy for the needle to get stuck, for the liquid to flow backward, or for sensors to give wrong readings. Even medicines that seem simple—like anti-nausea shots during motion sickness, painkillers for injuries, antibiotics for infections, allergy treatments, or complex drugs like chemotherapy—can become risky if the dose isn’t exactly right. Right now, the tools we have, like regular syringes or prefilled auto-injectors, only work on Earth. They rely on gravity or someone’s hand being steady. In extreme environments, this is not reliable, and mistakes can be dangerous. There isn’t currently a system that can automatically deliver the right amount of medicine while also monitoring vital signs, like heart rate, oxygen, or CO₂, in these conditions. That’s where PULSE v0 comes in. This prototype is designed to see if a machine can safely and automatically give medicine while keeping humans at the center of the design. It’s about making injections predictable, accurate, and safe even in difficult situations. By testing this on the bench first, we can figure out the best ways to control fluid flow, prevent needle jams, and make sure sensors work correctly—without putting anyone at risk. PULSE v0 doesn’t just solve one problem; it explores how automated medicine delivery could work in extreme conditions, providing critical data for future versions that could protect astronauts, researchers, and even people on Earth in emergencies.

PULSE is a human-centered, wearable device designed to safely deliver medicine automatically while monitoring vital signs such as heart rate, oxygen, and CO₂ levels. Its compact, modular design makes it usable in tight spaces, like spacecraft or lunar habitats, and allows astronauts or analog crew to manage daily, weekly, or monthly medications without manual syringes. PULSE v0 is a bench-top prototype, focused on testing fluid dynamics, injection accuracy, and system reliability. Safety features prevent fluid jams, needle errors, or incorrect dosing. This early-stage version demonstrates that the core technology works and lays the foundation for future iterations, including multi-drug delivery, habitat health integration, and applications on Earth in remote or emergency settings. Unlike traditional syringes, prefilled auto-injectors, or remote-controlled systems, PULSE is adaptable, autonomous, and built specifically for human needs in extreme environments. By prioritizing usability, autonomy, and safety, PULSE addresses a critical gap in space medicine, generating insights that make space exploration safer and more accessible to millions of future travelers. From an investment perspective, PULSE has multiple revenue opportunities: licensing to private space companies, government agencies, or research centers, unit sales, and data-driven insights for medical research. Supporting this project accelerates human-centered innovation, enables safer space missions, and creates technology with meaningful terrestrial impact.

There are several technical risks in developing PULSE v0, including incorrect medication flow, needle jams, backflow, or sensor errors. To address these, we will conduct rigorous bench-level testing to validate injection accuracy, fluid dynamics, and overall system reliability. Each test will be carefully documented and analyzed to identify and resolve any issues. Safety backups and monitoring systems are integrated to prevent errors during testing. At this early stage, human training risks are nonexistent, as no live testing will occur. The team will follow standardized procedures for operating the prototype, ensuring consistency and reducing potential errors during controlled bench testing. Financial and timing risks are mitigated through detailed project planning. Development milestones and testing schedules are tracked to ensure the project stays on budget and on time, with contingency plans for unexpected setbacks. Testing for PULSE v0 will focus entirely on system performance and injection precision. Fluid dynamics will be analyzed by running simulated medication through the system under controlled conditions, measuring flow rates, pressure consistency, and backflow prevention. Each injection cycle will be monitored to ensure the needle deploys smoothly, delivers the correct dose, and retracts safely. Sensors will be evaluated for accuracy in detecting flow, volume, and simulated physiological feedback to confirm the system responds correctly under different scenarios. Success will be determined using clear performance metrics: dose accuracy within ±5%, consistent flow across repeated injections, and zero needle jams during multiple test runs. Any failures will be documented, and iterative improvements will be applied until performance meets or exceeds benchmarks. By systematically testing each component and the overall system, PULSE v0 demonstrates a safe, reliable, and functional proof-of-concept for automated injections. This approach provides solid evidence that the core technology works, laying the foundation for future refinements and eventual real-world or space applications.

Objective #1: Build and validate PULSE v0 as a bench-top prototype to demonstrate safe, accurate, and reliable automated injection in 3 months. Results for Objective #1:

• Complete functional assembly of PULSE v0 within 3 weeks, including fluid delivery system, needle mechanism, and monitoring sensors.
• Conduct at least 50 bench-top injection cycles under controlled conditions to measure accuracy, flow consistency, and sensor reliability.
• Achieve dose delivery accuracy within ±5% across repeated tests and zero needle jams during testing.
• Document all test results, failures, and iterative improvements in a reproducible log for validation and roadmap planning.
  
  

Member(s) responsible for OKR and their role:

• All

Team (Table A)#

Timeline (Table B)#

Deadline for the project: End of Q3.