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Designing systems for cognitive enhancement
Extending human and computer abilities in sensing, communication, and actuation through signals and networks
Humanity is facing thorny problems on all fronts. These folks are working to solve them—and trying to avoid the unintended consequences.
The human experience of food extends far beyond that of mere nourishment. Debriefs with astronauts tell us that food is a key creature co...
The MIT Media Lab Space Exploration Initiative is developing “The Interplanetary Cookbook”—a collection of thought-provoking recipes, too...
Public libraries are one of most trusted public institutions in the US and increasingly provide a broad range of education services, rang...
Space Exploration Initiative
In 2015, the director general of the European Space Agency (ESA), Jan Wörner, introduced the concept of the “Moon Village.” Inspired by t...
Hairstyles, musical instruments and gardening all change in zero gravity, scientist Sands Fish says.
When contemplating the future of life in space, we dream not only of rockets and off-world societies, but also of art, of leisure, and fr...
Ariel Ekblaw presented designs for self-assembling architecture to create habitats for people living and working in low-gravity environments
Overview: How will we build the coming generations of Space Architecture—the modules, space ships, and space stations that will ensc...
Open Ocean
Beyond the Cradle
Greater Boston’s annual festival of ideas finds new avenues for celebrating and connecting innovators.
Advancing justice in Earth's complex systems using designs enabled by space
Seamlessly coupling the worlds of bits and atoms by giving dynamic physical form to digital information and computation
Media Lab spinoff company Figur8 has developed a cost-effective, portable system to measure and track human motion.
An underwater internet of things monitoring the effects of climate change or sampling waters on distant planets
The Lut Desert of Iran is one of the most similar regions to Mars. Close to that area, there are vernacular adobe architectures that are ...
Submerged system uses the vibration of “piezoelectric” materials to generate power and send and receive data.
This mission included participation from several departments at MIT and outside collaborators from across the globe.
SpaceHuman is a soft robotics device designed to facilitate the exploration of environments with reduced gravity in a view of democratiza...
Today, the environments that humans occupy in space are designed for survival. Humans are carefully shuttled to and from space, and durin...
Biological neuronal networks are highly complex and interconnected with superior information processing capabilities. Such networks have ...
Augmenting and mediating human experience, interaction, and perception with sensor networks
ML Learning
We present Piezo-Acoustic Backscatter (PAB), the first technology that enables backscatter networking in underwater environments. PAB rel...
Tom Standage and Seth Stevenson talk to a range of experts about what Victorian-era polar exploration can teach us about space travel.
For decades, the International Space Station (ISS) has operated as a bastion of international cooperation and a unique testbed for microg...
Researchers at the MIT Media Lab are developing technology for a day when amateur astronauts travel into orbit.
Innovation knows no geographic bounds in this collaboration, including research by Labber Valentina Sumini.
Paraffin wax (common candlewax) shows promise as a high-performing hybrid rocket propellant for chemical propulsion systems. Its inherent...
Can a modified snap bracelet be used to land infrastructure on an asteroid? It is notoriously difficult to stick a landing on a low ...
Living Distance is a mission and a fantasy realized, in which a wisdom tooth is sent to outer space and back down to Earth again. Carried...
Joi Ito calls for responsible stewardship of the commons beyond our planet.
When we say we’re “democratizing access to space exploration,” what do we mean?
Maiden Flight is an autonomous biological laboratory environment designed for studying the impact of space flight on the sole reproductiv...
Lab on Body, Synthetic Biology, and Bio-Digital Systems for Health and Human Enhancement
Designing Wearables for Space Exploration
Rating efforts to keep Earth orbit sustainable
The World Economic Forum has selected a consortium of companies, universities and agencies to develop a system to rate the sustainability of
This project asks, how can we transmit experiences across space and time? The launching point of the project is to create a drawing that ...
A team led by the Space Enabled group, ESA, and the World Economic Forum will address waste in Earth’s orbit
Space Exploration Initiative research aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard experiment capsule crossed the Karman line for three minutes
The projects on board the Media Lab's first suborbital rocket flight
On May 2nd, 2019 we launched three TESSERAE v2 hardware tiles into space and back! They rode to just over 100km (past the Karman line) on...
Teleportation may have to wait.
More ocean data has been collected in the last two years than in all previous years combined, and we are on a path to continue to break t...
The outermost skin of a space-based structure is designed using materials known to protect against the harsh elements of space. Simultane...
Structurally, zero gravity means that we do not have to contend with architecture's greatest arch-nemesis, gravity. This opens up a new w...
The future of human life outside of Earth will heavily depend on the ability to fabricate and manufacture things. Yet fabrication in spac...
Imagine a physical object that floats through the air, unconstrained by gravity, which can move freely to display the motion of a planet ...
Before low-earth orbit is clogged with hotels, satellite traffic, and debris, we should plan for the extra-planetary community we want.
Ekblaw, Ariel, and Joseph Paradiso. “ Self-Assembling Space Habitats:TESSERAE Technology and Mission Architecture for Zero-g Construction ” To appear in the Proceedings of the IEEE Aerospace Conference (2019).
Researchers say new facilities in space should be available to scientists from any country.
Gravity anchors all existence on Earth.It pulls a chaotic world to one single point in every moment of life. Even though gravity is every...
Neil Gaikwad, a third-year PhD student in the Space Enabled research group, has been selected as one of the 2019 Facebook Fellows.
Tomorrow’s space explorers won’t be able to pack traditional, heavy building materials for their missions.
Earth is surrounded by a cloud of defunct satellites that can be hazardous to working spacecraft—but it doesn't have to be that way.
Descending into the dark sea is like exploring deep space.
Ekblaw, A. and Paradiso, J.A., "Self-assembling Space Architecture: tessellated shell structures for space habitats," In AIAA Scitech 2019 Forum, Smart/Adaptable Deployable Structures (p. 0481).
The Telemetron was created in response to a call from the MIT Media Lab’s Space Exploration Initiative.
BBC Click's Nick Kwek looks at some of the best technology stories of the week.
Thoughts from the Media Lab's Space Enabled group and Space Exploration Initiative
Ekblaw, Ariel and Joseph Paradiso. "TESSERAE: self-assembling shell structures for space exploration." In Proceedings of the Annual Symposium of the International Association of Shell and Spatial Structures: Extra Planetary Architecture, p. 317 (2018).
This project seeks to examine the effects of altered gravity on an individual’s physiology during parabolic flight. Specifically, we will...
Xin Liu discusses the Space Exploration Initiative's upcoming arts exhibition at Ars Electronica
Ariel Ekblaw speaks at Sónar+D