Intrepid Museum
Virtual Astronomy Live
Recycling and Sustainability in Space
Past EVENT
Thursday, MArch 18, 2021
5:30 PM EST
The in-space manufacturing project at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center is developing the materials and processes to enable on-demand manufacturing of spare components and recycling of materials on long duration space missions. The International Space Station (ISS) serves as a critical test bed for evaluating the operation of these manufacturing technologies in a crewed, microgravity environment. Hear from NASA Engineers as they talk about how the project works with commercial companies to develop payloads and experiments for demonstration on ISS, and how the recycling and reuse element of ISM is focused on creating a sustainable recycling ecosystem for future human spaceflight endeavors.
A pre-show will take place at 5:00pm EST with an interactive demonstration: Water Works, from Intrepid Museum Educator Jennifer Elliott.
The event is hosted and co-produced by John “Das” Galloway, founder of the Kerbal Space Academy.
This program is supported through a NASA Cooperative Agreement awarded to the New York Space Grant Consortium.
Participants
Tracie Prater
NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
Tracie Prater is an engineer in the Materials and Processes Laboratory at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, where she supports the in-space manufacturing (ISM) project. She also serves as a subject matter expert for NASA’s Centennial Challenges prize competition program and helped to develop the 3D Printed Habitat Challenge. She has a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Vanderbilt University. Tracie is also a senior member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
Michael K. Ewert
NASA Johnson Space Center
Michael K. Ewert has been a thermal and life support system engineer in the Crew and Thermal Systems Division at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas for the past 30 years. He has performed analysis and testing in various technology projects involving thermal control, life support and habitation systems. He is currently the systems engineering and integration lead for NASA’s Logistics Reduction project. He earned a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and holds several US patents.
Summer Ash
Moderator
Summer Ash has been both a rocket scientist and an astrophysicist. She is a freelance science writer and communicator whose work has been published in The Atlantic, NBC News, Smithsonian, Now.Space, Scientific American, Slate, and Nautilus.
John “Das”Galloway
Host and Producer
“Das” is a science outreach communicator who specializes in live, interactive video content. He is the creator of the Kerbal Space Academy, where he uses video games as a tool to start science and engineering conversations with viewers of all ages, and VECTORS Virtual Field Trips, which brings real-time interactive video to museums, events, and historical locations. “Das” also serves as a host and producer for NASASpaceflight.com.
Produced by Intrepid Museum in partnership with Kerbal Space Academy and Egress Productions, LLC.