INTERVIEWS & LECTURES

SIMOC and SAM —2023

SIMOC and SAM —2022

SIMOC and SAM —2021

SIMOC and SAM —2020

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.