BodyCap

BodyCap is a Caen, France-based medical technology company founded in 2011, specializing in miniaturized ingestible biosensors for continuous physiological monitoring of core body temperature and physical activity. BodyCap's core products — the e-Celsius Performance ingestible thermometer capsule and the e-Tact motion and activity monitoring system — have been adopted for use aboard the International Space Station to monitor astronaut health during long-duration spaceflight, where physiological changes from microgravity, radiation, altered sleep cycles, and psychological stress require continuous, accurate, non-invasive monitoring.

The e-Celsius capsule is a pill-sized device that patients or astronauts swallow, which then transmits real-time core body temperature via radio frequency telemetry to an external reader for 24–48 hours while naturally transiting the gastrointestinal tract. Core temperature (rather than skin or axillary temperature) is the clinically relevant physiological indicator for fever, heat stress, exercise thermoregulation, and circadian rhythm disruption — all concerns in spaceflight. Traditional rectal or esophageal temperature probes are invasive and impractical for continuous monitoring; e-Celsius provides comparable accuracy non-invasively.

For ISS missions, BodyCap's technology has been incorporated into CNES (French Space Agency) research protocols studying circadian rhythm disruption, thermoregulatory adaptation to microgravity, and sleep quality in astronauts — building a physiological dataset across multiple long-duration missions that informs countermeasures for future deep space missions to the Moon and Mars. CNES's Medes space medicine institute (Institut de Médecine et de Physiologie Spatiales) in Toulouse has been a key partner in deploying BodyCap's technology in space medical research.

Beyond space, BodyCap markets e-Celsius for sports performance monitoring (monitoring elite athletes' core temperature during training and competition), fever management in intensive care and general ward patients, and early warning for hyperthermia in workers in hot industrial environments. The dual medical-sports market strategy allows BodyCap to scale manufacturing volumes that support competitive pricing for the smaller space medicine market. The company competes with VitalConnect, Equivital, and MIMU clinical wearables in the physiological monitoring market.