Press
The Space Exploration Initiative has engaged with a variety of opportunities to share our work with a broader audience, including Into the Anthropocosmos, a lavishly illustrated catalog newly released in honor of SEI’s 5th anniversary.
Below are selections of featured press and a record of SEI’s appearance in news and other press outlets, as well as ways to learn more about SEI on social media.
Cover art by Josh Simpson & Sands Fish
Featured Press
2021
MIT News
Life in space: Preparing for an increasingly tangible reality
The Space Exploration Initiative supports research across and beyond MIT in two microgravity flights this spring.
Boston 7 News
MIT researchers involved with Blue Origin launch celebrate milestone
Ariel Ekblaw, founder and director of MIT’s Space Exploration Initiative, discusses the future of commercial spaceflight: “As the economy grows around space exploration,” she says, “it will become more accessible and prices will drop, and that will become a huge success for everyone involved.”
Yahoo Finance
Space industry will need artists, designers, lawyers: MIT Space Exploration Initiative director
“For all the richness of human life on earth, we will want the same diversity of roles. We’ll want the rich tapestry of what makes life so special on Earth to also be designed for in space.”
Autodesk: The New Possible Podcast
MIT Space Exploration Initiative Designs Everyday Life in Space
What will our homes look like? What types of instruments can we play? How will we maintain an emotional connection to Earth? Listen to SEI Director, Ariel Ekblaw, and SEI designer and engineering extraordinaire, Che-Wei Wang, in dialog with the Autodesk team on designing, fabricating, and launching objects for life in space. Special feature on the Zenolith project.
WONDROS Podcast
A New Space Age: the Future of the AnthropoCosmos | Ariel Ekblaw | Wondros Podcast Ep 68
Jesse Dylan and and Priscilla Cohen talk with Dr. Ariel Ekblaw, Founder and Director of SEI, about how to make a better, democratic future human civilization in space.
Logistics Innovation
Video Conference with MIT and Fraunhofer-IML Researchers
Weightlessness opens up new possibilities for self-controlling systems and in-space structures. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Fraunhofer IML at TU Dortmund have collaborated on a technology platform that is opening up new potential - and has successfully completed initial tests on the ISS. Special feature on the TESSERAE project.
The Tech
What’s it like to design a meal that floats?
Taking a taste of the sensory research of Space Exploration Initiative’s Maggie Coblentz, who believes that by designing novel space food rituals, astronauts will not just be able to survive in space, but thrive there as well.
Bloomberg: Baystate Business
Baystate Business: Space Travel (Radio)
Dr. Ariel Ekblaw, founder and director of the MIT Space Exploration Initiative, on the significance of the flight.
2020
MIT News
Five MIT Payloads Deployed on the International Space Station
A cohort of trans-disciplinary researchers will study the effects of sustained microgravity.
The Wall Street Journal
How to Build a Home on the Moon
A small-scale replica of a lunar habitat is taking shape at Purdue University. The goal is to prepare for life in a hostile environment—including our own.
Ars Electronica
Sojourner 2020 Artist Conversation
Sojourner2020, the first international art open call that took a trip to International Space Station this March.
WIRED (cover story)
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? Featuring SEI's Maggie Coblentz on her work in space food and interplanetary gastronomy.
BBC The Real Story
The Privatization of Space Travel
On the cusp of SpaceX's historic 2020 launch, bringing crewed launches back to the U.S., how is corporate capital changing our journey into the cosmos? SEI Director, Ariel Ekblaw, joins Charles Bolden, Dr. Jill Stuart, and John Logsdon to discuss the next decade of human spaceflight.
WBUR On Point
How Private Companies Are Changing The Future Of Space Exploration
SEI Director, Ariel Ekblaw, joins Charles Bolden, former NASA Administrator, to consider the future of human space exploration.
Chemical Kitchen
GastroGeeks: Interplanetary gastronomy
GastroGeeks discusses questions about space food, gastronomy and science with SEI's researcher Maggie Coblentz.
2019
CBC
Space pianos and upside-down shoes: innovations for life in space
Hairstyles, musical instruments and gardening all change in zero gravity, Sands Fish says.
CNN
SEI Director, Ariel Ekblaw, discusses habitats for Earth, Moon, and Mars alongside Bjarke Ingels, Lucianne Walkowicz, and Lisa Messeri.
WIRED
Space Exploration and the Age of the Anthropocosmos
The new generation of space architects can learn from our successes and failures in protecting the internet commons and build a better paradigm for space, writes Media Lab Director, Joi Ito.
WIRED UK
The design secrets Nasa's using to keep astronauts happy in space
Big windows, fresh fruit and regular phone calls home help manage the mental health of astronauts on the International Space Station. But missions to Mars on beyond will require a whole new approach to how spaceships are designed. The Space Exploration Initiative's Maggie Coblentz weighs in on the future of space food.
The Wall Street Journal
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, writes Ariel Ekblaw, founder of the MIT Media Lab Space Exploration Initiative.
How a Robotic Tail Could Help Future Space Travelers & The Zero-Gravity Orchestra
Researchers, Valentina Sumini and Manuel Muccillo, at the MIT Media Lab are developing technology for a day when amateur astronauts travel into orbit.
Nicole L’Huillier and Sands Fish are building a zero-gravity orchestra—a series of instruments that are designed to be performed exclusively in the absence of gravity.
The BBC
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. One young designer, Space Exploration Initiative Director Ariel Ekblaw, is already working on habitats that will build themselves.
SPACE.com
The Future's Coming: Why we need to prepare for Sci Fi Tomorrows Today
Coverage of Beyond the Cradle 2019.
National Geographic
Beyond the Cradle featured nationwide through National Geographic online feature.
MIT News
Designing humanity’s future in space
The Space Exploration Initiative’s latest parabolic research flight explores work and play in microgravity.
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 of sustained microgravity.
MIT, Blue Origin to cooperate on sending research experiment to the moon
MIT community input [including Space Exploration Initiative payload designs] will help determine the focus of the study to be carried aboard Blue Moon lander.
2018
Motherboard Vice
The ‘Telemetron’ Is a Post-Earth Musical Instrument Designed for Zero Gravity
The Telemetron generates musical compositions using gyroscopic “chimes.”
MIT’s ‘Orbit Weaver’ Turns Astronauts into Spiders
Moving around in microgravity is tough, but a new MIT Media Lab device takes a page from Spiderman to help astronauts navigate while weightless.
Discovery Channel Daily Planet
Spatial Flux: Body and architecture in space
This prototype explores surfaces utilizing materials that would normally fail on Earth, yet flourish in zero gravity.
Ars Technica
“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, as Ariel Ekblaw discusses her bio-inspired TESSERAE space habitat.
MIT News
Prototypes for the new space age
The Media Lab Space Exploration Initiative shares results and next steps from its first zero gravity research mission.
2017
PLACES Journal
A visit to Spaceport America, where the coming of the Second Space Age is already history, and the announcement of the MIT Media Lab's Space Exploration Initiative.
MIT News
Media Lab sets sights on space
MIT Media Lab event, Beyond the Cradle, launches a new initiative to explore the final frontier.