Research
Space Enabled

Advancing justice in Earth's complex systems using designs enabled by space
Research
Space Exploration Initiative

Space Exploration Initiative
Research
Opera of the Future

Extending expression, learning, and health through innovations in musical composition, performance, and participation
Research
Affective Computing

Advancing wellbeing by using new ways to communicate, understand, and respond to emotion
Project Research

Public Library Innovation Exchange

Public libraries are one of most trusted public institutions in the US and increasingly provide a broad range of education services, rang...
Research
ML Learning

ML Learning
Post Research

Curating the human experience of space—present, future, and fiction

Xin Liu discusses the Space Exploration Initiative's upcoming arts exhibition at Ars Electronica
Article Research

Science Fiction for tomorrow's day to day

Ariel Ekblaw speaks at Sónar+D
Article Research

Making Music in Space

Nicole L'Huillier speaks at Sónar+D
Article Research

The Telemetron is a post-Earth musical instrument designed for zero gravity

The Telemetron generates musical compositions using gyroscopic “chimes.”
Project Research

The Telemetron

Today, the environments that humans occupy in space are designed for survival. Humans are carefully shuttled to and from space, and durin...
Article Research

Project TESSERAE, a Self-Assembling Space Architecture

The TESSERAE project is a design experiment in imagining how to bring the concept of geodesic domes from Earth into orbit.
Project Research

TESSERAE: Self-Assembling Space Architecture

The future of human habitation in space, from Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to planetary systems far beyond, lies in self-assembling, adaptive, a...
Article Research

MIT's 'Orbit Weaver' turns astronauts into spiders

A new MIT Media Lab device takes a page from Spiderman to help astronauts navigate while weightless.
Project Research

Orbit Weaver

Gravity is the anchor of all existences on earth, pulling the chaotic world to one single point in every moment of life.  Even ...
Project Research

Food for Space

Food in space has moved beyond that which is simply developed down on Earth for space purposes. A new food culture will emerge as a resul...
Project Research

Cookbook for Zero Gravity

The human experience of food extends far beyond that of mere nourishment. Debriefs with astronauts tell us that food is a key c...
Research
Responsive Environments

Augmenting and mediating human experience, interaction, and perception with sensor networks
Post Research

Rhapsody in Zero G

Reimagining research for life in space
Publication Research

TESSERAE: Self-Assembling Shell Structures for Space Exploration

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).
Research
Tangible Media

Seamlessly coupling the worlds of bits and atoms by giving dynamic physical form to digital information and computation
Project Research

Spatial Flux: Body and Architecture in Space

Structurally, zero gravity means that we do not have to contend with architecture's greatest arch-nemesis, gravity. This opens up a new w...
Publication Research

Vomit Comet Physiology: Autonomic Changes in Novice Flyers

Johnson, K.T., Taylor, S., Fedor, S., Jaques, N., Chen, W., Picard, R.W. "Vomit Comet Physiology: Autonomic Changes in Novice Flyers." Proceedings of the International Conference of IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), Honolulu, Hawaii, July 2018.
Post Research

TNW 2018: Designing Our Sci-Fi Space Future

For more on the Space Exploration Initiative @TNW2018, you can read the full article, "Making Star Wars a Reality through Design Thinking...
Project Research

Physio FreeFall

This project seeks to examine the effects of altered gravity on an individual’s physiology during parabolic flight. Specifically, we will...
Project Research

Liquid Resin Fabrication in Microgravity

The future of human life outside of Earth will heavily depend on the ability to fabricate and manufacture things. Yet fabrication in spac...
Article Research

"Life, uh, finds a way"

Biomimicry looks to living organisms to create the future of sustainable engineering.
Post Research

Inventing Smells for Space: A chemistry, design, and R&D collaboration with IFF

A chemistry, design, and R&D collaboration with International Flavors and Fragrances, Inc.
Article Research

A guide to daily life on Mars

What would daily life be like on the Red Planet?
Post Research

Six space technologies we can use to improve life on Earth

Danielle Wood's TED Talk
Article Research

“Life, uh, finds a way”—Applying lessons from evolution to go to Mars

Biomimicry looks to living organisms to create the future of sustainable engineering.
Publication Research

Self-Assembling Space Structures: buckminsterfullerene sensor nodes

Ekblaw, Ariel, and Joseph Paradiso. "Self-assembling Space Structures: Buckminsterfullerene Sensor Nodes." In 2018 AIAA SciTech / AHS Adaptive Structures Conference, p. 0565. 2018.
Project Research

Scratch in Space

The Scratch Team invited young people from around the world to create Scratch projects designed specifically to be played in zero gr...
Project Research

Search for Extra-Terrestrial Genomes (SETG)

The widespread synthesis of common organic building blocks in space could have biased life beyond Earth towards chemical similarities to ...
Project Research

Social Robots in Space: Initial Explorations

Can we enable social connectivity between astronauts and people on Earth through an embodied agent?Astronauts actively communicate with t...
Project Research

Orbit Weaver Suit

​​​​​​​​​The Orbit Weaver Suit for zero gravity was designed by Media Lab Director's Fellow Andrea Lauer in collaboration with ...
Project Research

Grappler: Arrays of bistable elements for landing distributed sensor networks on low gravity bodies

Can a modified snap bracelet be used to land infrastructure on an asteroid? It is notoriously difficult to stick a landing on a low ...
Project Research

Smells for Space: Olfactory Timecapsule for Earthly Memories

Each new technology forces us to confront who we are as humans.  As technological innovations in deep space exploration keep advanci...
Project Research

Nanoscale Imaging of Biomolecules in Zero G

Expansion microscopy (ExM) is a new imaging modality developed by MIT Media Lab's Synthetic Neurobiology group. ExM allows biomolecules t...
Project Research

VR Maze in Zero Gravity

The brain uses space to index, organize, and retrieve memories. However, our sense of space depends on our perception of gravity. We...
Article Research

Surface to Unlimited

There will be space makers and tinkerers, space theorists and humanists, space artists and athletes.
Post Research

How humans could evolve to survive in space

Lisa Nip's TED Talk
Archived
Project Research

ZeroN: Levitated Tangible Interface

Imagine a physical object that floats through the air, unconstrained by gravity, which can move freely to display the motion of a planet ...
Archived