INTERVIEWS & LECTURES
2025
- April — Biosphere 2 Board of Directors
- May — University of Florida, hosted by ISS National Lab
2024
- February — Bremen Human Space Exploration Seminar
- May — Analog Astronaut Conference, Biosphere 2
Life on Spaceships and Mars, National Public Radio, PRX, July 17, 2024
“This Episode Annanda and Keisha Explore The Big Question of, is it worth the expense to go to Mars given the needs on Earth? And what would it be like to live on Mars or in space? They interview Kai Staats, Director of Research for SAM at the University of Arizona Biosphere 2 to get the space tea.” Listen to the full episode.
2023
- January — Simulating residency on another world by Arizona Public Media
- March — SIMOC and SAM presented to NASA Interns
- May — Analog Astronaut Conference, Biosphere 2
- May — Arizona Space Institute Symposium “Flash Talks”
- August — Interview with Aaron Bugaj: Spotify | Apple Podcast
- December — Amateur Astronomers, Inc.
2022
- February — Arizona Space Business Roundtable
- May — Analog Astronaut Conference 2022
- May — Analog Astronaut Conference, Biosphere 2
- May — NSS International Space Development Conference and Space Forum
- June — NASA Habitats forum
- July — The Space Show
- October — Mars Society Conference 2022
2021
- January — The Space Show
- February — Space Horizons
- April — SIMOC and SAM presented to schools in Australia and Thailand
- May — Analog Astronaut Conference
- May — Space for Food panel discussion
- June — Space Habitats Conference
- June — University of Arizona VIP students and Biosphere 2 Board of Directors
- June — Lunar Planetary Institute Terrestrial Analog Conference
- June — Simulating Mars Habitats with Kai Staats with Paul Sutter and Space Radio Live!
- August — Foundation for the Future, Conversations for the Future on Workforce & Industrial Base. Watch the video …
- September — Live demonstration of SIMOC for Dr. Ray Wheeler’s research group at NASA Kennedy Space Center.
- September — Interstellar Research Group (IRG) 2021, Tucson, Arizona.
- November — SIMOC and SAM presented to NASA Interns
- December — Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association (TAAA)
2020/strong>
- June — SIMOC and SAM presented to NASA Interns
- July — Quest ISS at Biosphere 2
- July — Software for Space live presentation, demonstration, and Q&A with Kai Staats and Ezio Melotti | Watch the video …
- October — Hi-Fidelity Mars Habitat for the 23nd Annual International Mars Society Convention
- October — SIMOC and SAM presented to NASA Interns
- December — Biosphere 2 and SAM to ICS primary school in Bangkok, Thailand
- December — Second annual SAM Symposium
Life and Systems in Closed Worlds, Biosphere 2, December 13, 2019
A new interdisciplinary research initiative on “Life and Systems in Closed Worlds”, involving social and natural scientists, launched by the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and the University of Arizona and Ecole Normale Supérieure. Kai Staats shared his team’s work in off-world habitat simulation through SIMOC, and development of the Mars analog research station SAM.
ASU Interplanetary Initiative, September 30, 2019
An interview video about SIMOC, for the Arizona State University, School of Earth & Space Exploration, Interplanetary Initiative. Watch here …
A Study of Analogs Missions for the Moon and Mars, Biosphere 2, May 10, 2019
Kai Staats shared withe Biosphere 2 Board of Directors a vision for the world’s highest fidelity Lunar and Mars analog and research station. A Study of Analog Missions (SAM) will be a human-in-the-loop, hermetically sealed environment for short- and long-term biology, ecology, chemistry, and habitation studies. It will incorporate a fully functional airlock, semi-closed ecosystem, Paragon ECLSS life support, and pressure suits for all entry, exit, and EVAs.
Rose City Astronomers, Portland, Oregon, November 19, 2018
Living on Mars—From Biosphere 2 to The Martian. Kai Staats engaged the audience in a brief overview of historic microgravity plant growth experiments, human-in-the-loop closed ecosystem studies, the challenges of living off-world, and an introduction to SIMOC, an ASU Interplanetary Initiative pilot project. In this scalable, interactive model of an off-world community built on decades of NASA data, researchers and citizen scientists select crew quarters, a greenhouse and plants, and power generation, and then set the model in motion to learn how well the design holds up.