Post Research

Designing humanity’s future in space

The Space Exploration Initiative’s latest research flight explores work and play in zero gravity
Post Research

Democratizing Access to Space

When we say we’re “democratizing access to space exploration,” what do we mean?
Post Research

TESSERAE: ISS 30 day mission

On an upcoming SpaceX launch (CRS-20), we are launching seven TESSERAE v3 hardware tiles to the International Space Station.
Article Research

The artist-engineer in VR

At Sundance New Frontiers 2020, Xin Liu and Qinya (Jenny) Guo debuted Living Distance, a VR piece about the journey of Liu’s wisdom tooth.
Post Research

Space Miso: ISS Mission 2020

New flavors may evolve as earth foods migrate to outer space. A collaboration between Maggie Coblentz at the MIT Media Lab and Joshua Eva...
Project Research

Radiofungi: Biological Pigments for Radioprotection

A major concern for manned missions is space radiation. Ionizing radiation is known to pose both acute and chronic risks to many organism...
Article Research

Algae caviar, anyone? What we'll eat on the journey to Mars

Humans are headed for the cosmos, and we’re taking our appetites with us. What will fill the void when we leave Earth behind?
Post Research

Space Situational Awareness: Key issues in an evolving landscape | Statement of Dr. Danielle Wood

Danielle Wood's official testimony from the congressional hearing for the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics.
Project Research

Molecular Gastronomy in Zero G

A molecular gastronomy experiment was flown on a zero gravity flight in August 2019, using spherification techniques to create recipes in...
Article Research

How private companies are changing the future of space exploration

Ariel Ekblaw and Charles Bolden consider the future of human spaceflight.
Article Research

Work advances on Space Sustainability Rating

A consortium established last year to develop a rating to measure how well satellites comply with space sustainability guidelines expects to
Project Research

Space/Craft

Space/Craft explores sculpting in zero gravity. Making artistic works by hand is a fundamentally human act, but how will it transfor...
Archived
Project Research

FLAPS: Folded Lightweight Actuated Positioning System for CubeSat Deployables

Mechanical actuators for deployable systems on satellites are often complex, expensive, only designed for a single use, and too large or ...
Archived
Archived
Project Research

Microgravity Rowing

In microgravity, the removal of constant loading on the skeleton leads to loss of bone density and muscle mass. In order to counteract th...
Archived
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

Moon Village

In 2015, the director general of the European Space Agency (ESA), Jan Wörner, introduced the concept of the “Moon Village.” Inspired by t...
Post Research

Zero Gravity Flight 2019

This mission included participation from several departments at MIT and outside collaborators from across the globe.
Article Research

Sustainability rating for space could help keep junk out of the sky

Danielle Wood discusses the satellite technology research and other work underway in her Space Enabled research group.
Article Research

Designs on the sky

Fulbright-Nehru Master’s Fellow Prathima Muniyappa uses the transformative power of design to empower marginalized indigenous communities.
Project Research

Theme | Wearable Biotech Enhancement

Lab on Body, Synthetic Biology, and Bio-Digital Systems for Health and Human Enhancement
Article Research

WIRED25: Stories of people who are racing to save us

Humanity is facing thorny problems on all fronts. These folks are working to solve them—and trying to avoid the unintended consequences.
Article Research

Space pianos and upside-down shoes: innovations for life in space

Hairstyles, musical instruments and gardening all change in zero gravity, scientist Sands Fish says.
Article Research

Collaboration is key for the future of space exploration, HubWeek scientists say

Ariel Ekblaw presented designs for self-assembling architecture to create habitats for people living and working in low-gravity environments
Article Research

HubWeek 2019 celebrates five years of connecting MIT, Boston, and the world

Greater Boston’s annual festival of ideas finds new avenues for celebrating and connecting innovators.
Article Research

MIT engineer develops new way to improve your body movement

Media Lab spinoff company Figur8 has developed a cost-effective, portable system to measure and track human motion.
Article Research

MIT creates battery-free sensor for deep-sea and extraterrestrial exploration

An underwater internet of things monitoring the effects of climate change or sampling waters on distant planets
Article Research

A battery-free sensor for underwater exploration

Submerged system uses the vibration of “piezoelectric” materials to generate power and send and receive data.
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...
Project Research

Accessibility of the microgravity research ecosystem

For decades, the International Space Station (ISS) has operated as a bastion of international cooperation and a unique testbed for microg...
Article Research

How a robotic tail could help future space travelers

Researchers at the MIT Media Lab are developing technology for a day when amateur astronauts travel into orbit.
Article Research

Honorable Mention: Moon Village, a vibrant hub in the unknown

Innovation knows no geographic bounds in this collaboration, including research by Labber Valentina Sumini.
Article Research

Space exploration and the age of the Anthropocosmos

Joi Ito calls for responsible stewardship of the commons beyond our planet.
Project Research

Maiden Flight

Maiden Flight is an autonomous biological laboratory environment designed for studying the impact of space flight on the sole reproductiv...
Post Research

Space Health Wearables

Designing Wearables for Space Exploration
Article Research

A new grading system could deter satellite operators from junking up space

Rating efforts to keep Earth orbit sustainable
Article Research

Consortium to develop “space sustainability” rating system

The World Economic Forum has selected a consortium of companies, universities and agencies to develop a system to rate the sustainability of
Project Research

Telepresent Drawings in Space

This project asks, how can we transmit experiences across space and time? The launching point of the project is to create a drawing that ...
Post Research

Creating a Space Sustainability Rating

A team led by the Space Enabled group, ESA, and the World Economic Forum will address waste in Earth’s orbit
Article Research

Six suborbital research payloads from MIT fly to space and back

Space Exploration Initiative research aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard experiment capsule crossed the Karman line for three minutes
Post Research

Six suborbital research payloads fly on Blue Origin New Shepard

The projects on board the Media Lab's first suborbital rocket flight
Post Research

TESSERAE: Suborbital launch test

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...
Article Research

The Future's Coming: Why we need to prepare for sci-fi tomorrows today

Teleportation may have to wait.
Project Research

Big Ocean, Big Data

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...
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...
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
Article Research

Space is poised for explosive growth. Let’s get it right.

Before low-earth orbit is clogged with hotels, satellite traffic, and debris, we should plan for the extra-planetary community we want.
Publication Research

Self-Assembling Space Habitats: TESSERAE design and mission architecture

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).
Article Research

Microgravity research after the International Space Station

Researchers say new facilities in space should be available to scientists from any country.
Project Research

Orbit Weaver

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...
Article Research

The architect designing self-assembling habitats for space

Tomorrow’s space explorers won’t be able to pack traditional, heavy building materials for their missions.
Article Research

Changing how we build satellites could do more than reduce space junk

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.
Article Research

Uncharted worlds

Descending into the dark sea is like exploring deep space.
Publication Research

Self-Assembling Space Architecture: tessellated shell structures for space habitats

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).
Article Research

MIT’s zero-gravity musical instrument provides a soundtrack for space travel

The Telemetron was created in response to a call from the MIT Media Lab’s Space Exploration Initiative.
Article Research

A musical instrument for astronauts and other news

BBC Click's Nick Kwek looks at some of the best technology stories of the week.
Post Research

Earthrise, 50 years later

Thoughts from the Media Lab's Space Enabled group and Space Exploration Initiative
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).
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...
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.”
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.
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.
Post Research

Rhapsody in Zero G

Reimagining research for life in space
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...
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.