How do we adapt to extreme conditions and how we care for each other? In the time of pandemic and isolation, can we learn from astronauts and people who have lived through hardships?
Join us to learn about the Space Exploration Initiative (SEI) through three workshop events.
SEI focuses on the lived experiences of humans in space, hoping to move past the survivalist nature of space exploration and find ways people for people to delight in inhabiting outer space. SEI’s mission is threefold: to democratize action in space, to revolutionize the future of space, and to realize space exploration. It strives towards these goals through research explorations in design for the body in space, space sensing and robotics, space food and sensory experiences, deep space exploration, space & the arts, and space health.
3. Wellbeing in Extreme Environments – How do we adapt to extreme conditions and how we care for each other. In the time of pandemic and isolation, can we learn from astronauts and people who have lived through hardships?
Register in advance for this meeting:
mit.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwvf-qvqj4tE9UMUf1QhTpYJTahd6uol3wd
DESCRIPTION:
Food is a key creature comfort in spaceflight, and it will play an even more significant role on long duration space travel and future life in space habitats. Currently, space food is freeze-dried and prepackaged in ways consistent with the demands of present day space travel. The advancement of deepspace exploration and the development of an interplanetary space tourism industry will make new cultural events and experiences never encountered before in human history possible. How can we create space food that extends beyond basic sustenance and inspires new rituals and traditions?
WHAT TO EXPECT:
Join us in another galaxy, at our Space Food Test Kitchen to co-create a collection of space-inspired recipes!
WHAT TO BRING:
The name and description of your favorite recipe, or a meal you would like to bring to space. Ideas, pictures, recipes, and ingredients are all welcome!
OUTCOME:
A Space Food Cookbook!
Biography
Maggie Coblentz is an industrial designer and researcher who uses food as a lens to explore the future of human life and culture in extreme environments. She pursues this at the MIT Media Lab Space Exploration Initiative—a research group actively building the technologies, tools, and human experiences of our sci-fi space future—where she leads research on Space Food.
Maggie builds designed objects, systems and experiences that will allow humans to not just survive, but thrive in space. Her research aims to address the unique challenges associated with cooking and eating in space—from the microbiome scale to the envirome scale—including the psychosocial aspects of eating, wellbeing, food stimuli and sensory experiences, food preparation techniques, food preservation, and closed loop food systems. In her practice, Maggie makes speculative designs and gastronomic experiences that anticipate future global demands and promote unforeseen artifacts and foodways—on and off Earth.
Maggie holds a masters degree in industrial design from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and has a background in fashion design.
