At the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Judy Herrera and her team discovered something that could reshape how NASA prepares astronauts for long journeys beyond Earth: the ziplock bags we trust to save space might be slowly emptying pills of their power.
The finding matters because NASA has a bold vision. The Artemis program aims to build a sustained presence on the moon, and missions will stretch longer and farther than ever before. Astronauts on the moon, and eventually Mars, will need medications they can rely on—antibiotics for infections, pain relievers, treatments for unforeseen medical emergencies. Every gram of payload counts in spaceflight, so NASA has long repackaged medications from their original containers into lightweight resealable plastic bags. It's a sensible trade-off. Or so it seemed, until SwRI's research raised a red flag.
For six months, Herrera's team conducted a controlled experiment that didn't require launching anything into orbit. They took several common medications and split them into two groups: one kept in original packaging, the other transferred into zip-style bags. Both were exposed to hot, humid conditions—40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) and 75 percent relative humidity—conditions that approximate what medications might experience during storage on a spacecraft or lunar base. Using high-performance liquid chromatography, a precise analytical technique, the researchers measured active pharmaceutical ingredients at regular intervals.
What they found was sobering. Within two months, active ingredients in one common antibiotic were completely degraded. Two other medications tested showed measurable degradation as well. The repackaged medications in plastic bags consistently broke down faster than their counterparts in original pharmaceutical packaging. "While the study was limited to Earthly conditions, we found that within two months, active ingredients in one common antibiotic were completely degraded while ingredients in two other medications degraded measurably," Herrera said when she presented the findings at the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists PharmSci 360 event in November 2025.
The implications stretch beyond space exploration. Anyone repackaging medication—pharmacists, patients managing chronic conditions, disaster relief organizations—might benefit from understanding that original packaging exists for a reason. Air, moisture, and light exposure, controlled on Earth in this experiment, can degrade medicine faster than we assume.
But the space challenge is unique. Earth-based storage conditions don't account for radiation, microgravity, or the extreme isolation of a multi-month mission to the moon or beyond. Herrera herself noted the limitation: "Spaceflight presents additional variables that require investigation." Future studies, she suggested, may broaden the scope to understand what happens to medications during extended lunar habitation and deep-space exploration.
For now, SwRI and NASA have clarity on one piece of the puzzle. Darrel Johnston, director of Pharmaceuticals and Bioengineering at SwRI, emphasized that the institute's integrated facilities and expertise positioned it to tackle this uniquely demanding problem quickly—and that integration will likely be essential for the next phase of research. As Artemis astronauts prepare for the moon, they may soon be carrying medications in their original, less efficient but far more protective packaging. It's a small adjustment that could make the difference between a managed crisis and a medical emergency millions of miles from home.