NASA won’t be pausing its space missions despite the current state of the COVID-19 pandemic and in order to help its workers stay safe and healthy, it’s planning to distribute about 1,000 Fitbit smart fitness tracker.

The distribution will also reach its 150 astronauts with the primary goal of establishing whether these devices can contribute to the safety of its personnel during the pandemic.

Mission-critical personnel are essential to the progress of many of the US Space agency’s plans for future space exploration and researches which is why there is need to keep everyone safe and healthy.

The distribution of the Fitbit smart fitness tracker will be handed to selected crew members whereby they’ll be able to access a daily check-in application that will assist them in recording vital data which could show traces of COVID-19 symptoms and other health and fitness metrics.

With the data being generated from the device as well as data that’s logged by the end users, these will all help the app to identify changes in the body system which could point to early signs of the Covid-19 illness.

When something as such happens, users will be notified and will either be required to self-isolate or go to work depending on its findings and also it can advise on getting tested in order to have a definitive status of the virus in the body.

It is expected that the Fitbit pilot program will further enhance safety protocols already put in place to ensure that employees are kept safe and healthy and astronauts are guaranteed as healthy prior to any space mission, so as not to jeopardize the mission.

Smartwatches are becoming really important sporting tools during the pandemic as it help people to keep monitoring their health and track their fitness during the lockdown.

Apple introduced the Fitness Plus which allows users to stay fit while indoors. Fitbit has however made a number of partnership with different brands to create a good monitoring system that can help track early symptoms of the coronavirus.