Beyond Earth Webinar: Artificial Gravity: From Cinema to Reality

The Beyond Earth Institute (Beyond Earth) will be hosting a virtual policy event titled “Artificial Gravity: From Cinema to Reality” on January 18, 2023 from 1:00-2:30 pm Eastern Time via Zoom. The event is free with donations suggested. Tickets can be obtained at the following link: https://app.tickettailor.com/events/beyondearthinstitute/808542

As the global space community makes a return to the moon and sets its sight on Mars and beyond, an exciting new era of deep space, long-duration crewed space exploration and development is upon us. However, as promising as our journeys beyond Earth orbit will be, they will also carry significant health challenges for future explorers and pioneers – not least of which is body-degrading long-term exposure to microgravity. As a recent NASA Ames study concluded, one promising countermeasure for upcoming deep space missions is artificial gravity aboard journey-bound craft.

The concept is far from novel. From Discovery’s rotating centrifuge in “2001: A Space Odyssey” to Mark Whitney’s Mars-bound Hermes in “The Martian,” artificial gravity in space has long been in the public imagination. Scientists have been studying the concept since the start of the Space Age; and, though it didn’t come to fruition, there were even formal efforts to include an artificial gravity module – the “Nautilus X” – on the International Space Station. Today, innovative companies such as Gravitics are actively developing stations designed around the artificial gravity environment.

The future expansion of humanity into the depths of the solar system will very likely rely on artificial gravity, and the time is ripe to start demonstrating the capability. This Beyond Earth panel brings together the leading experts and executives studying and deploying artificial gravity in space for a compelling conversation on the opportunities and challenges involved in the technology, as well as the vision for its future.

Speakers:

Moderator: Mike DeRosa, Marketing and Media, Co-Founder, Gravitics
Tarek Waked, Founding Partner, Type One Ventures
Peter Garretson, Head, Space Horizons Research Task Force
Dr. Janani Iyer, Research Scientist, USRA/NASA Ames, Author, Cells Report paper
Dr. Siddhita Mhatre, Senior Scientist, KBR/NASA Ames, Author, Cells Report paper
Cells Report paper: https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/pdf/S2211-1247(22)01099-3.pdf

About the Beyond Earth Institute

The Beyond Earth Institute is a 501(c)(3) U.S. non-profit organization. It is at the heart of all related initiatives that impact the success of the space movement with respect to human expansion beyond Earth. Beyond Earth’s focus is on technology readiness, worldwide public support, and related public policy enactment, including recommendations for policy initiatives. Beyond Earth conducts primary and secondary research, then consolidates and publicizes reports to be delivered and presented widely throughout the space policy community both in the U.S. and internationally.