Human space exploration presents five major hazards that pose significant risks to astronauts: radiation, isolation and confinement, distance from Earth, gravity fields, and hostile/closed environments. Understanding these hazards is crucial for optimizing astronaut health and performance across various space mission classes. To mitigate these risks, space agencies focus on developing comprehensive strategies that address both physiological and psychological challenges. These strategies vary depending on the mission type, duration and destination. By tailoring health and performance protocols to specific mission profiles, astronauts can better prepare for the unique occupational challenges, thereby enhancing the probability of mission success.

NASA addresses its top risks with targeted countermeasures, medical standards, technologies, and training. Key fundamentals include sleep, exercise, diet, and expeditionary behavioral skills which are important elements for enabling high performing diverse astronaut crews. Emphasis is placed on astronaut self-care, the importance of leadership and followership skills, and how to thrive in isolated, small-team environments. Contemporary topics will be introduced regarding the advent of opening spaceflight accessible to a broader population. This overview highlights the multifaceted nature of promoting astronaut health and critical skills central to mission success.

Event Date: 9 / 11 / 2024

The promise of starting life anew somewhere far, far away—no climate change, no war, no Twitter—beckons, and settling the stars finally seems within our grasp. Kelly and Zach Weinersmith set out to write the essential guide to a glorious future of space settlements, but after years of research, they aren’t so sure it’s a good idea. Space technologies and space business are progressing fast, but we lack the knowledge needed to have space kids, build space farms, and create space nations in a way that doesn’t spark conflict back home. In a world hurtling toward human expansion into space, the Weinersmiths' book A City on Mars investigates whether the dream of new worlds won’t create nightmares, both for settlers and the people they leave behind.

Event Date: 4 / 2 / 2024

Observations of the total solar eclipse of 1919 famously confirmed Einstein’s prediction that light, like all matter, travels on “straight lines” in curved spacetime. We will first delve into the fascinating story of the prediction and observational confirmation of how light travels in the curved spacetime near massive bodies like our sun. We will then see how, from 1919 to the present, our understanding of this behavior of light (gravitational lensing) has become an invaluable tool in probing the nature of dark matter, and even the environs of supermassive black holes.

Event Date: 3 / 21 / 2024