Space Exploration Initiative

Project Overview The Space Grip Shoe (SGS) is an iconic concept presented across the history of space fiction, from 2001: A Space Odys…

On Earth, morning, noon, and night have their own specific meanings. The feeling of a second or a minute passing by, the shortening of the …

Somayajulu Dhulipala, Manwei Chan, Carlos Portela, MIT SEDSOverviewAs humanity inches closer to setting up colonies on the Moon and Mars, l…

Joe Kennedy – Harvard University: Graduate School of Design, DDes; Morgan Ip – Cambridge University: Scott Polar Research Institute, Post-D…

SEI Analog Environments StudyProject OverviewThe way humans engage with space has changed rapidly over the past 60 years, moving from a mod…

By Martin NisserThe ability to deploy large space structures is key to enabling long-duration and long-distance space missions, supporting …

The Microsoft Azure Kinect is a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) time-of-flight (ToF) depth camera which can provide high resolution near-fi…

The Mechanical Artifact Ultra Space students at the Yale School of Architecture designed the Nomad Suit, a holistic and performative suit t…

By Aleksy Dojnow

By Xinyi Yang

By Michael Luu

By Ebru Kurbak

By Alvin Donel Harvey 

By Michelle LinIn microgravity, the proprioceptive system undergoes adaptations due to the lack of constant gravitational cues [1]. Photo-v…

The  Interplanetary Gastronomy research  aims to address the unique challenges and opportunities associated with eating in s…

Building an open, shared, and collaborative future of lunar exploration.Explore the Lunar Open Architecture (LOA) at loa.mit.edu. …

Sparking conversations through artwork  and envisioning future values for a spacefaring society

Impenetrable darkness, extreme pressure, cold water, and disorienting equilibrium. Deep sea creatures live in a world that is closer to out…

Rapid prototyping platforms such as 3D printers used for digital fabrication are today able to manufacture custom objects for specific task…

By Nancy Valladares and Rae Yuping HsuThis project is an art performance that seeks to rethink imaginaries of multispecies surviv…

The Tidmarsh Living Observatory Portal is a research project that focuses on the design and fabrication of a pavilion that will genera…

By Larissa Zhou and Adam ZacharFood is crucial to maintaining the physical and psychological health of humans in space. Eating food pr…

By Somayajulu Dhulipala and Manwei ChanAs humanity explores deeper into space, long-duration missions will require horticulture activities …

Through the ages, artists, writers, and filmmakers have always been inspired by space. Artists’ visionary depictions of space as an environ…

By Po-Hao ChiHow could microgravity/hypergravity shape our perceptual experience of listening with weightlessness? How can we seek to explo…

How did life originate? Nobody knows. Life might not even be native to our Earth - it might have come from asteroids or the interstellar me…

The Miniature Optical Steered Antenna for Intersatellite Communications (MOSAIC)By Shreeyam KackerThe Miniature Optical Steered Antenn…

Ever wish you could toss your folded up tent and have it self-assemble mid-air?  Well...you can. In a zero gravity environment.Self As…

Solid-state microfrabricated devices are in development to replace contemporary heavy mechanical components for use in spacecraft propellan…

An astronaut's ability to leverage the sense of touch is substantially reduced when wearing a protective, pressurized spacesuit. We imagine…

When imagining human life in space, how will we express our humanity and creativity in an alien environment? Can the art we make both refle…

A major concern for manned missions is space radiation. Ionizing radiation is known to pose both acute and chronic risks to many organisms,…

Overview: The outermost skin of a space-based structure is designed using materials known to protect against the harsh elements of space. S…

Climate CubeSat Co-Building (C3) The Media Lab Space Exploration Initiative is driven by an effort to democratize the future…

Studying group dynamics in space environments with virtual reality simulations to inform the design of future governance systems

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

Wearables are being widely researched for monitoring individual's health and wellbeing. Current generation wearable devices sense an indivi…

In recent years, there has been an increase in low-cost and open-source electronic and chemical sensors that hobbyists, concerned citizens,…

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 hu…

SpaceHuman is a soft robotics device designed to facilitate the exploration of environments with reduced gravity in a view of democratizati…

Biological neuronal networks are highly complex and interconnected with superior information processing capabilities. Such networks have pr…

 A multi-course tasting menu was flown on a zero gravity flight in August 2019.  Five specially crafted dishes were consumed…

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

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

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

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

EBIFA (Everything Beautiful Is Far Away) is a crystalline robotic device that carried a tooth to outer space. EBIFA's form and fu…

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

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

Expansion microscopy (ExM) is a new imaging modality developed by MIT Media Lab's Synthetic Neurobiology group. ExM allows biomolecules to …

We study textiles and nets as a base form for growing infrastructure and allowing reconfigurable sensing on low gravity bodies (for instanc…

Gravity anchors all existence on Earth.It pulls a chaotic world to one single point in every moment of life. Even though gravity is everywh…

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

The objective of this project is to experimentally asses the impact of gravity reference frame on the experience of Virtual Reality (VR), …

This research highlights opportunities to bring the rich culture of Earth-based fermentation practices to space to design beneficial applic…

Games are a uniquely human endeavour, reducing stress and supporting mental well-being. Astronauts aboard the ISS have created their own ga…

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

The Scratch Team invited young people from around the world to create Scratch projects designed specifically to be played in zero grav…

Life on Mars, if it exists, could have been transferred between Earth and Mars due to meteorite impacts. The Search for Extra-Terrestrial G…

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

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

Gravity Proof is a performance and mission to prepare and cook bread in space. Inspired by ancient recipes and archaeological bread re…

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 freq…

How might zero gravity space affect silk spinning, and what benefits might such material properties provide for digital fabrication and add…

Maiden Flight is an autonomous biological laboratory environment designed for studying the impact of space flight on the sole reproductive …

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

Mechanical actuators for deployable systems on satellites are often complex, expensive, only designed for a single use, and too large or he…

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

Can we enable social connectivity between astronauts and people on Earth through an embodied agent?Astronauts actively communicate with the…