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asl
Designing Systems for Cognitive Support
Space Exploration Initiative
This research highlights opportunities to bring the rich culture of Earth-based fermentation practices to space to design beneficial applic…
Prolonged exposure to microgravity is known to cause various acute health risks, including muscle atrophy, bone loss, cardiovascular decon…
Advancing justice in Earth's complex systems using designs enabled by space
Structurally, zero gravity means that we do not have to contend with architecture's greatest arch-nemesis, gravity. This opens up a new wor…
Connected Mind + Body | Revolutionizing the future of mental and physical wellbeing
Future Worlds | Design and action for the future we want to live in
Wax-based hybrid rocket propellants, including paraffin (common candlewax) and beeswax show promise as high-performing hybrid rocket propel…
Overview: How will we build the coming generations of Space Architecture—the modules, space ships, and space stations that will enscon…
The Space Sustainability RatingThe Space Sustainability Rating design team—comprised of the World Economic Forum, the European Space Agency…
In recent years, there has been an increase in low-cost and open-source electronic and chemical sensors that hobbyists, concerned citizens,…
Overview: The outermost skin of a space-based structure is designed using materials known to protect against the harsh elements of space. S…
A major concern for manned missions is space radiation. Ionizing radiation is known to pose both acute and chronic risks to many organisms,…
Building an open, shared, and collaborative future of lunar exploration.Explore the Lunar Open Architecture (LOA) at loa.mit.edu. …
The Interplanetary Gastronomy research aims to address the unique challenges and opportunities associated with eating in s…
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…
By Larissa Zhou and Adam ZacharFood is crucial to maintaining the physical and psychological health of humans in space. Eating food pr…
Rapid prototyping platforms such as 3D printers used for digital fabrication are today able to manufacture custom objects for specific task…
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 …
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…
By Po-Hao ChiHow could microgravity/hypergravity shape our perceptual experience of listening with weightlessness? How can we seek to explo…
The Miniature Optical Steered Antenna for Intersatellite Communications (MOSAIC)By Shreeyam KackerThe Miniature Optical Steered Antenn…
Solid-state microfrabricated devices are in development to replace contemporary heavy mechanical components for use in spacecraft propellan…
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…
By Somayajulu Dhulipala and Manwei ChanAs humanity explores deeper into space, long-duration missions will require horticulture activities …
By Nancy Valladares and Rae Yuping HsuThis project is an art performance that seeks to rethink imaginaries of multispecies surviv…
SpaceHuman is a soft robotics device designed to facilitate the exploration of environments with reduced gravity in a view of democratizati…
Space/Craft explores sculpting in zero gravity. Making artistic works by hand is a fundamentally human act, but how will it transform …
Life on Mars, if it exists, could have been transferred between Earth and Mars due to meteorite impacts. The Search for Extra-Terrestrial G…
A multi-course tasting menu was flown on a zero gravity flight in August 2019. Five specially crafted dishes were consumed…
A molecular gastronomy experiment was flown on a zero gravity flight in August 2019, using spherification techniques to create recipes in z…
Expansion microscopy (ExM) is a new imaging modality developed by MIT Media Lab's Synthetic Neurobiology group. ExM allows biomolecules to …
The widespread synthesis of common organic building blocks in space could have biased life beyond Earth towards chemical similarities to li…
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 Orbit Weaver Suit for zero gravity was designed by Media Lab Director's Fellow Andrea Lauer in collaboration with Xi…
We study textiles and nets as a base form for growing infrastructure and allowing reconfigurable sensing on low gravity bodies (for instanc…
Each new technology forces us to confront who we are as humans. As technological innovations in deep space exploration keep advancing…
Today, the environments that humans occupy in space are designed for survival. Humans are carefully shuttled to and from space, and during …
The brain uses space to index, organize, and retrieve memories. However, our sense of space depends on our perception of gravity. We p…
The Space Exploration Initiative charters an annual ZERO-G parabolic flight for 14-15 projects and 25 researchers across MIT Media Lab, sev…
These five women at the MIT Media Lab are advancing aerospace science and research, driven by a love of our home planet.
Media Lab Director Dava Newman talks to Leonard David about research that may counteract the effects of microgravity on astronauts' bodies.
Augmenting and mediating human experience, interaction, and perception with sensor networks
Traditional additive manufacturing processes, especially those that make use of liquid resin as the feedstock, are constrained by the gravi…
By Rachel BellisleOverview:The Gravity Loading Countermeasure Skinsuit (GLCS or “Skinsuit”) is an intravehicular activity suit for astronau…
Invent new tangible and embodied interactions that inspire and engage people
Media Lab's Ariel Ekblaw talks to Inverse about the questions and the philosophies that drive her work with SEI and the Aurelia Institute.
Extending expression, learning, and health through innovations in musical composition, performance, and participation
Somayajulu Dhulipala, Manwei Chan. Agrifuge: An exploration of controlled irrigation methods for a rotating plant habitat. IAC-22, Paris, France. IAC-22,A2,3,4,x69080.
S. Sharma, N. Klop-Packel, A. Ekblaw, “The Astronaut Ethnography Web Project: Insights from First-Person Accounts of Space.” AC-22,E1,9,19,x68611, 73rd International Astronautical Congress (IAC), Paris, France, 18-22 September 2022.
New flavors may evolve as earth foods migrate to outer space. A collaboration between Maggie Coblentz at the MIT Media Lab and Joshua Evans…
The Scratch Team invited young people from around the world to create Scratch projects designed specifically to be played in zero grav…
The environmental conditions of prolonged spaceflight pose significant psychological risks for astronauts. In particular, crews of future …
This project seeks to examine the effects of altered gravity on an individual’s physiology during parabolic flight. Specifically, we will c…
Self-reconfiguring ElectroVoxels use embedded electromagnets to test applications for space exploration.
Gravity Proof is a performance and mission to prepare and cook bread in space. Inspired by ancient recipes and archaeological bread re…
Our journeys off-world have taught us just as much about humanity as the harsh environment of space. For the past 20 years, we have had a c…
Living in space could have significant physical and mental impacts on astronauts. Wearables have the potential to play a critical role in m…
The Space Exploration Initiative supports research across and beyond MIT in two microgravity flights this spring.
The projects on board the Media Lab's first suborbital rocket flight
How might zero gravity space affect silk spinning, and what benefits might such material properties provide for digital fabrication and add…
The Interplanetary Cookbook, developed by Maggie Coblentz, presents thought-provoking recipes and zero-g kitchenware for the future of life…
Taking a taste of the sensory research of Space Exploration Initiative’s Maggie Coblentz
Space research, led by a diverse team of women scientists, will be presented at this year's AIAA Ascend Conference.
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…
The future of human life outside of Earth will heavily depend on the ability to fabricate and manufacture things. Yet fabrication in space …
Developed by a team of Media Lab researchers, SpaceHuman is a seahorse-inspired additive prosthetic for use in microgravity environments.
A cohort of transdisciplinary researchers will study effects of sustained microgravity
The Space Exploration Initiative’s latest research flight explores work and play in zero gravity