If you didn't find what you were looking for, try a new search!
We now have a dedicated website for the Arizona State University, Interplanetary Initiative SIMOC project. There you will find a continuation of the “Postcard from Mars – SIMOC updates”. Please visit www.simoc.space for more!
At 8 pm this evening, the ASU Capstone team that has been developing the SIMOC game interface will have completed the first working prototype. This brings to fruition six months development of this unique agent model, and lays the foundation for its continued evolution.
As with all software projects, we begin with the blue sky as our goal, and a belief that we will reach that far. In October, November, and December of 2017 we engaged two calls each week, Saturday and Monday evenings. These 1-3 hour brainstorming sessions were a chance for the entire team to explore the possibilities of a scalable, mathematical model with a gaming interface.
We continually juggled the need to build a scientific foundation, a tool to be used for research with the goal to provide a gaming interface that engaged the non-scientific community (while yet producing scientific data, under the hood). While I have extensive experience in software development through my ten years as CEO of Terra Soft, and each of the ASU team came on-board with skills and experience ranging from Python to C, bash to CSS and SQL servers, none of us have built anything quite like this. None of us was truly the leader, nor anyone following. We all pitched in, challenged each other in the conversations, and slowly laid a design foundation that seemed to work.
ASU undergraduate astronomy student Tyler Cox came on-board in July 2017 to get the ball rolling. He built the first, working agent-based model (ABM) using Python and the Mesa library. He was able to quickly demonstrate a functional “astronaut in a can” model in which the initial parameters determined if the human crew of astronauts lived or died (they mostly died). Even our simple model with a light interaction between humans, a few species of plants, and a contained atmosphere proved tricky as even a minor imbalance in the system lead to catastrophic results.
In January the capstone team duplicated Tyler’s work on an Amazon web server, integrating SIMOC into an SQL database instead of the original JSON configuration files. Following a minor setback in which we realized Unity was overkill and a good ol’ web interface would suffice, we reset our expectations and started again. The end result goes lives tonight at 8 pm Arizona Mountain Time. It will be simple, and a little rough around the edges, but the Launch screen, Configuration Wizard, and Dashboard (game interface) will be complete (for now).
I have enjoyed the pleasure of working with the following ASU undergraduate students through the Computer Science Capstone team: Ben McCord, Greg Schoberth, Terry Turner, Thomas Curry, and Yves Koulidiati. In addition, we have this year welcomed the incredibly talented, widely published space artist and habitat designer Bryan Versteeg of Spacehabs.com as a backbone to our design process. And most recently, Kevin Hubbard comes to us with a strong foundation in the social sciences, his intent to introduce a means by which we can integrate human social behavior into a more advanced version of our model.
Just two weeks ago our work on SIMOC resumed. The holiday break was longer than anticipated (by me). I feel we lost some momentum from the pace we set last fall, but we are regaining now, shooting for a working prototype by the Interplanetary Initiative meeting March 5.
The team made a decision last week to abandon Unity as our game play engine, instead building a Javascript web interface. While we will have less total functionality, we are now more closely aligned with the current goals of this first version of our game play interface. And we will far more easily achieve the desired cross-platform support through a web interface. This decision cost us a week-long sprint of agile programming. Not a tremendous amount of time, but a loss that could have been avoided had I. A lesson learned, but no long-term damage done.
With the start of the new year we welcomed Bryan Versteeg, world renowned space artist onto the team. He is now leading the design of the game play interface and playing “pieces”, the icons that represent the growing, off-world community.
ECLSS
An Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) enables humans to survive in a semi-open (Fig 1) completely closed (BioSphere II, Lunar Palace) ecosystem. In a traditional model, all components vital to sustaining life are tracked by a network of system monitors. Careful estimations are made for the quantity of humans in the given environment for a particular period of time, against the resources provided. The amount of work they perform, the food they consume, and the number of hours they sleep all affect the duration and quality of the mission (see Wikipedia commons image, above).
In this linear tabulation of resource allocation and consumption each human actor or agent is treated as an IN and OUT box, a system which transforms one resource of a particular quantity into a bi-product which is either reused or discarded as waste.
To use this model for a massively scalable system (4-40,000 people) will result in an arduous, ultimately failing bookkeeping effort of tracking values such as the quantity of molecules of oxygen, carbon dioxide, water, calories, Watts or Joules. Through this linear method, we will be less likely to discover causality. If instead we can build a model which considers the relationship between two or more systems, which are themselves maintained by a constant input of energy and mass flow against the natural progression toward system breakdown, then we will gain a better sense of what it means to scale a human colony in a totally foreign, inhospitable environment, from the first astronauts to arrive to a genetically viable human gene pool that can, of its own accord, carry the human species forward.
A rendezvous with Rama
In our imagination, humans in a distant future have gained the ability to travel vast distances in relatively short periods of time. An exploratory mission discovers a massive, abandoned space station in orbit about a planet which itself is not conducive to life as we know it. We attach a shuttle craft to the hull of the outpost, tens of kilometers in diameter, and let ourselves inside. There does not appear to be a single living creature inside. Nothing moves, not even automated repair and management systems.
Immediately, we ask, For how long has this outpost been abandoned?
To answer that question, we determine if the atmosphere is breathable for humans, and we remove our helmets. The air is dry, cold, and devoid of the smell of decay. There is an odor of machine oil and mechanical systems.
While completely sealed, and safely parked in a non-decaying orbit far above the drag of the atmosphere, this habitat is decaying. It is slowly degrading. No matter how well crafted, no matter how perfectly every nut, bolt, and weld is applied, eventually this artificial world will fall to pieces.
You can point to the systems which are no longer being maintained: water delivery, sewage removal, atmosphere recycling systems. The ship’s hull is continuously bombarded with radiation from the binary star system 1.5 AU from the orbit of the host planet. Each of these is breaking down due to a lack of maintenance.
As we explore the inner halls and chambers of this orbiting world we take note of the integrity of the structure. Are seals in tact? Are lubricants leaking? Do the doorways to passages open and close securely? Do motors yet spin and pistons yet pump? Or have all moving parts seized and become immobile?
While we tend to measure breakdown over time, we can also measure the disorganization of the structure, at the macroscopic and microscopic levels. Physical breakdown of a mechanical system can be described as a degree of current functionality in comparison to its original design parameters. In this alien outpost, despite the incredible technology employed, we do recognize the failure of some systems (once rebooted and encouraged to operate again), such that we are able to estimate their original function and design specification. The difference between full capacity and the current state is a ratio which can be described as a normalized function, from zero through one [0 … 1] where 1 is complete, working order and 0 is a seized, non-functioning machine, no longer providing the intended service, and thereby no longer supporting this habitat nor the inhabitants who once occupied it.
This breakdown, the unavoidable decline of all bounded systems can be described by the single variable entropy, or the measure of organization.
So let’s take a few steps back, to a time when the alien station was yet inhabited. We can safely assume that at that time there was a maintenance schedule, a system by which the entire structure was maintained through routine inspection, repair, and replacement. This could have been done by the macroscopic hands of the aliens (who appear to be of a similar stature to that of the human explorers), an automated array of robotic assistants, or by microscopic nanobots whose function is to maintain the integrity of all functional systems, at all times, such that no weaknesses ever develop, and no systems ever suffer from catastrophic failure.
Either way, there is a cost to this maintenance, the work (w), or energy expenditure and mass flow to maintain the function (f) of the habitat. Organization (o) of this work requires management of information (i). As such, we have defined a means by which we can measure the status of a closed ecosystem:
Function, then, is a relationship between the Organization, Information, and Work attributed to the sustained management of the habitat, or its total functionality. While each of these could be measured in any of number methods, we will place each in a tightly bound relationship to entropy, such that entropy is the counterpart, the undoing of organization, information, work, and ultimately the function.
Now, we have a new means of monitoring the health of the physical parameters of an isolated habitat, as:
Where the ratio is a measure of the effort or energy required to ultimately maintain a self-contained ecosystem without ever having had to count the molecules of oxygen, water, or complex carbohydrates. In a newly built habitat, the entropy is low, therefore the maintenance is low as well. But as the habitat ages, or if catastrophe strikes, the entropy will be large, thereby requiring greater organization, information, and work to bring it back into compliance with sustaining human life.
We are relating the current state of the system to its design specification over the inevitable force of entropy.
Back to Mars
If we employ a normalized set of values, as discussed above, then the maths is quite simple, even as we scale this colony from 4 to 400 to 40,000 individual habitants. This is not to say we will not count molecules nor worry ourselves with the atmospheric pressure in the greenhouse, for our model is in fact based on data accumulated from close-ecosystem and bioregenerative experiments on Earth. But to find those non-linear functions of scalability, we must remove ourselves from the line-item bookkeeping which would otherwise overlook the economies of scale which will surely affect a growing colony.
The habitat itself is designed to sustain human life in an otherwise inhospitable environment. As such, we can model the human lives of the astronauts by making certain the habitat itself is functional. We have established a potential framework built upon four parameters which enable us, at any point in the run-time of our SIMOC model, determine the relatively “health” of the physical structure of the habitat.
Now, let’s turn our attention to the health of the human habitants for which the habitat was designed and built Like a structure which is built from concrete, steel, glass, and soil, humans are composed of building blocks. Water, oxygen, calories, protein, vitamins and minerals make up the fluid and solid systems of our bodies.
How do we bring such discreet elements into the SIMOC model without managing each and every molecule that supports the lives of the human inhabitants of the isolated colony? In much the same way as we did with the habitat, we can look at the construct of the human body, and what breaks down over time.
One can see the human body as an assembly of points of failure, critical systems which must be satisfied. Oxygen intake, carbon dioxide exhalation, water, calories, nutrition, and waste management are as mission critical to the human body as is a sealed, pressurized shell to a habitat.
If we see humans as the caretakers of the habitat, that is, the principal labor force responsible for its anti-entropic upkeep, and the habitat as the physical construct which enables the humans to survive in outer space, or on a remote planet, then we have created a positive feedback loop in which each unit supports the other.
What happens when automated or directed robot labor replaces the human maintenance engineer? The labor is shifted from one entity to another, but the total work required to maintain the habitat is sustained, and the total quantity of humans supported, given the immediate infrastructure is not changed. Rather, the caloric expenditure of each human in the habitat is shifted to other functions, and the economy of scale is realized.
“Some stories only make sense in retrospect, the looking back giving foundation to where we now stand. This is the first of what will hopefully be a series of essays to describe the path from a Good Sam’s campground in 2011 to in some way, helping develop the first community on Mars.” –kai
It starts long ago, beneath a stair case in the basement of our family home in Columbus, Nebraska. Friend Jason Zach and I covered the underside of the stairs with plywood, cardboard, a dead monochrome CRT, and myriad electronic components, wires that stimulated Radio Shack switches, piezoelectric sirens, and LEDs and wires that went nowhere. In that spacecraft, we journeyed across the galaxy, venturing to the shores of distant planets whose inhabitants had never before seen humans. Jason was an expert marksman, never afraid to attack. I was keenly interested in obtaining samples, studying the cultures, and welcomed Jason to cover my back.
Many years later, while camped at a Good Sam’s, in Seabrook, New Hampshire on August 2011, I returned to that child-like sense of belonging to a distant place and time. As described, I believed I gained some insight as to how isolated communities might evolve on space stations, Mars and asteroid outposts, even among the stars.
Later that same year, I returned to Holden Village, an isolated village in the Cascades of Washington State. In those months late in the year, the retreat of summer saw the last of the guests depart down the sixteen miles to Lake Chelan. Those of us who remained, counted by dozens, shifted our daily routine from that of a more finite task to general support of the village. Files had to be stoked in order to heat the buildings, snow shoveled, and the water driving the hydro-electric generator kept from freezing, else the electricity would fail.
In those crisp, cold, mostly dark winter days that followed, Holden was a true Village. While a hierarchy of command remained, we became more egalitarian, sharing in the responsibilities of maintenance, even survival should a heavy snow storm bury the pathways and building exits or make impossible a medical evacuation. It was then that my interest in village (communal) living was again stimulated, and the journey to Mars re-ignited.
For five months in 2012 I worked as a photo journalist and documentary filmmaker in Palestine, where a sense of isolation from the world was applied not a mountain village, but the confines of geopolitical boundary that has the power to contain people from birth to death. I witnessed first-hand how the skilled craftsmen and capable artisans were the backbone of an economy of trade and negotiation in place of the familiar currencies of exchange. I learned how much individuals depend upon each other, especially in the challenging times.
I was building a sense of what it meant to live with the challenge of an isolated environment.
On an isolated ranch in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado in 2013, I lived for six months—up to six weeks without face-to-face contact with another human being. In those months I gained from the challenge and ultimate reward of true isolation; a chance to discover who I am without the influence of others, without opportunity to attribute my success nor place blame on the actions of others.
In 2014 I joined MarsCrew134 at the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) as the seventh member of an isolated, Mars analog crew. We lived for two weeks in the confines of a simulated Mars lander, a two-story vehicle just large enough to contain individual sleeping quarters, two airlocks, kitchen and crew commons, toilet and shower, lab, and minimal storage. We departed the structure only while wearing a spacesuit, the visor scratched and needing replacement; the radios dodgy at best. The crew came from six countries, representing seven nationalities and more than a dozen languages spoken. It was not always easy, and at times far from fun, but we made the best of those two weeks, focused on our research, data collection, and surviving the simulation. We came away friends for a life-time, even now traveling far to see each other again.
It was then that I became invested in a study of village life. In part because I realized that is where I felt most at home; in part because at least for the first generation, that is how humans will once again live when we finally place boots on Mars.
This week I submitted a proposal to the Interplanetary Initiative at Arizona State University’s School of Earth and Space Exploration (SESE) for the research and development of a mathematical model of a scalable, isolated model of an off-world community (SIMOC).
Now we wait …
I have considered my sources of joy: backpacking, rock climbing, surfing, and cross country running with my partner Colleen; wood working, cooking, reading, watching movies, inventing, and listening to music. I realized that not a single one of these involves the internet.
When I further delved into this investigation, I realized that I could not think of a single function of the internet that directly brings me joy. I appreciate being able to order books and movies from Amazon (but prefer book stores); and the weekly engagement of my SIMOC development team, but would prefer an in-person gathering were we not spread across three countries and as many States.
That says something. For me, the internet is not a source of joy. It is instead a source of anxiety for I know that I must engage, nearly every day, to maintain my income, to pay bills, to engage my employer (University of Arizona) in an ever growing mound of documents to prove my very existence within the layers of bureaucracy.
I already consider myself a minimal user, yet a reduced engagement is desired.
After two and a half years in research and development, networking and team building, chasing dollars and fund raising, this is the day we can officially say, “SAM IS BEING BUILT!”
SAM is a hi-fidelity, hermetically sealed analog and research center composed of a crew quarters, airlock and hub, and greenhouse with temperature, humidity, and carbon dioxide level controls. When complete, SAM will include a half-acre Mars yard for pressure suit, tool use, and rover tests. Located at the world renowned Biosphere 2 outside of Oracle, Arizona SAM is built around the original Test Module, a 480 cubic meter sealed greenhouse with automated, gravity-fed pressure regulation system designed and built by Taber MacCallum, William Dempster, and fellow Biospherians in 1987.
This week I have moved from my residence in Cascabel, Arizona to the Biosphere 2 where I fully anticipate long, back-to-back days of physical labor and further development of this exciting program. It is likely that my own blog entries will be few and far between for the coming year, but I will be posting regular updates about our progress at samb2.space/blog/.
I hope to see you there!
A Space Analog for the Moon and Mars (SAM), UA Biosphere 2, 2019-current
SAM is a platform for research and science education. As with many analogs before, SAM helps us prepare for the challenges of living and working in hostile environments. By isolating human research crews in an hermetically sealed and pressurized vessel SAM provides a unique, powerful environment in which to conduct a multitude of studies in mechanical and plant-based life support, plant biology, food studies, haptics and tool use while encumbered by a pressure suit; EVA, rover, and drone field exploration; the challenges of isolation and interpersonal engagement and music, writing, photography and film.
SIMOC – an isolated, off-world human community, 2017-current
SIMOC [see-mok] is a Scalable, Interactive Model of an Off-world Community. The model is given foundation on published data derived from Environmental Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS) and closed ecosystem research at NASA and universities world-wide. With SIMOC you design a habitat that sustains human life with a combination of mechanical and bioregenerative (plant-based) life support systems. Set the model in motion, and learn how your design performs for the duration of the mission!
I haven’t had much to say lately. Neither here nor on social media (which I seldom use, anyway). My words are no longer at home outside of my head. Where do they go? What value to they carry? To whom do they intend?
I’ve been hyper-focused on my research project and team at ASU, building a mathematical model of an off-world habitat and community. My work at LIGO has slowed, but remains in motion. Mostly guiding, in a supporting role. With the help of my high school physics prof Dan Heim, we are preparing the Cave-Cassegrain telescope to ship to Tanzania, the one I drove from Wisconsin back to Arizona a few weeks ago.
I am settling into some semblance of a routine, now that Colleen and I share a house in Flagstaff. Runs every-other-morning from here around Buffalo Park and back. Home made fruit smoothies, fresh eggs from Nikki’s chickens on the east side of town, then work from my shed-office, a tiny tin-roofed structure built from lumber recycled from two generations earlier. Interior sideboard are covered with newspapers from the 1800s. When I need a break, I walk around the space (4 paces long, 2 paces wide) and journey back in time.
I am experimenting with crabapple pies. Colleen continues to cook incredible meals, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. She is a natural with food. We eat incredibly healthy, yet both crave garden-fresh food knowing we have succumb to store-bought produce that always fails in comparison.
This was my summer to begin construction of a home on my land outside of Moab. But recent alterations to the C&Rs have raised confusion and tension. My ideal, modest mountain cabin may not be accepted, for it does not uphold the neighborhood that is leaning toward half million dollar homes. Legal language has been employed instead of neighborly consideration, despite my best attempts at personal communication. While the land remains astounding, I question if this is where I want to live, to raise a family. I should not have to seek legal approval to build a greenhouse or children’s playground when the nearest neighbor is a quarter mile away. I cannot help but see parallels between our small microcosm of the larger, over-developed world. Houses are sized not according to personal need nor their impact on the environment, but by the need to increase the value of the investment. This establishes a contest between frequently opposing forces. Development almost always wins.
The issues on the border are crushing to me. I fight back tears as I listen to the news. Having worked on the border with No More Deaths (https://www.kaistaats.com/blog/2010/06/no-more-deaths) I feel the pain of the situation deep inside. I contemplate forgoing a vacation and instead learning if my organizational and computer skills could somehow be applied, a database and image recognition algorithms to help reunite children with their parents.
Today, I must remain focused. Three calls with ASU research team members (ignoring that it is a Sunday), editing a film proposal, and the final submission of my book proposal for MIT Press.
LECTURES
SIMOC and SAM —2025
SIMOC and SAM —2024
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.
SIMOC and SAM —2023
Secrets of the Universe with astronaut Tim Peake, Biosphere 2, September 19, 2023
“Secrets of Our Universe with Tim Peake sees British astronaut Tim Peake take us on an out of this world journey — literally — as he searches for answers to some of the Universe’s BIG questions. Having spent six months orbiting Earth, Tim has a rather different perspective on space from the rest of us. And the 51-year-old puts his knowledge to good use in Channel 5 series, in which he looks at space missions, stars, black holes and the solar system.”
This 3-part series features a conversation with Kai Staats at Biosphere 2, as Kai and Tim discuss the challenges of human space travel, and the fundamental need to explore. Launch the series at BBC via Amazon Prime, Apple, or Roku | IMDB
SIMOC and SAM —2022
SIMOC and SAM —2021
A Year in Distance Engagement —2020
As all lectures and presentations moved on-line, the number of engagements increased in 2020. As an on-line tool for both physical and virtual classroom, interest in SIMOC grew. The following talks and lectures are those presented in 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.
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 (see-mok), 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.
Holden Village, Lake Chelan, Washington, August 13, 2018
An impromptu presentation about LIGO and gravitational wave astronomy for staff and guests of Holden Village. The film LIGO, A Passion for understanding was shown, followed by an engaging question and answer session.
Arizona Science Center, Phoenix, Arizona, May 4, 2018
Science With a Twist, “Going Where No Man Has Gone Before…Mars” + Space Science Panel.
7-7:45 p.m. followed by a Q&A session with audience members.
Taste of Science, Berkeley, CA, April 25, 2018
For the East Bay Taste of Science, Kai Staats presented his 3rd film “LIGO Detection” about the September 14, 2015 detection of two distant, merging black holes and the effort to validate such an extraordinary claim, followed by a presentation by Riccardo Bassiri, Stanford University graduate student and LIGO researcher.
American Physical Society, Columbus, Ohio, April 16, 2018
Session S14: Gravitational Waves: Detectors and Instrumentation
Machine Learning in the LIGO-Virgo Era with the slide deck available from this sub-page.
South African Astronomical Observatory, Cape Town, South Africa, September 28, 2017
“LIGO Detection: An exploration of complex data“, a colloquium talk about the application of machine learning to glitch classification and mechanical couplings in the LIGO interferometer; and the presentation of the film “LIGO Detection”.
Arizona Science Center, Phoenix, Arizona, April 29, 2017
For Astronomy Day at the Arizona Science Center, Kai Staats presented his 3rd film “LIGO Detection” about the September 14, 2015 detection of two distant, merging black holes, and a special sneak preview of a new planetarium film about Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory.
National Center for Supercomputing Applications, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, April 10, 2017
An NCSA Special Event brings Kai Staats for a colloquium titled “Making Movies about Making History: A Non-linear Journey from LEGO to LIGO“.
Anthem Community Center, Arizona, February 21, 2017
A screening of the third film in the series, “LIGO Detection” by Kai Staats followed by a presentation about the effort to detect supernovae using gravitational-wave astronomy at LIGO by Dr. Michele Zanolin, head of the astrophysics group at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
Arizona Science Center, Phoenix, Arizona, October 21, 2016
“From Pinocchio to the Terminator, What A.I. Teaches us About Ourselves” was the opening presenter for the evening, themed “A.I. Apocalypse”. Joined by Dr. Peter Jansen and Prof. Clayton T. Morrison from the University of Arizona for a panel discussion for this unique event.
Ohio State University, CCAPP, Columbus, Ohio, August 24-26 2016
Kai Staats was co-organiser and presenter at this first-ever Computing in High-Energy AstroParticle Research workshop in which Karoo GP was featured as a tool for improved understanding of complex data, as Evolutionary Computation applied to Astro-particle Physics.
SKA Machine Learning Journal Club, Pinelands, South Africa, August 2016
An introduction to the function of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) and Genetic Programming applied to glitch classification (remote presentation to the Square Kilometre Array).
Introduction to Evolutionary Computation, March-June 2016
Three talks on an introduction to machine learning, feature construction, and evolutionary computation:
Science Cafe Cape Town, October 2015
In “From Earth to Mars: A Journey for Us All” Kai engaged the audience of more than 100 in a brief introduction, one of the six films from the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS), and two dozen slides which described the current efforts to take humans to Mars, the asteroids, and beyond. Kai engaged the audience in an interactive question and answer period which lead to a wide diversity of subjects. Following the talk, Kai edited the audio recording and vetted all answers, with supporting data, corrections, and additions, as given here.
Astronomical Society of South Africa, June 2015
“From Dark Skies to Data Mining: A Propensity for Pattern Recognition” with Dr. Marco Cavaglia, University of Mississippi and the LIGO Scientific Collaboration — An introduction to Machine Learning as an extension of the innate human capacity for pattern recognition.
SAAO Open Night, May 2015
“Making Movies about Making History: A Passion for Science Discovery” — What unfolds when we ask questions about how the universe functions? And who are the people who work to discover the answers?
SAAO Colloquium, March 2015
A public screening of the second film in the series, “LIGO Generations” followed by a Q&A about the function of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO).
SKA Colloquium, July 2014
“From Hunter-Gatherer to Data Farmer: A Personal Journey in Email & Data Management” — A full-house offering both enthusiasm and resistance to evidence that a single, overloaded Inbox is in fact a horrible idea and more than 1000 unread messages is not something to brag about.
SAAO Colloquium, May 2014
“Science Outreach and Education through Film – Storytelling in a Digital World” — A brief introduction to the making of science outreach films, the screening of three short films, and then a Q&A period prior to a public star party.
TEDx Front Range, Colorado, May 2014
“A Telescope Opens the Mind to a Larger World” — The culmination of a thee year journey to understand how looking through a telescope can change one’s view of his or her place in the universe.
16th Annual Mars Society Conference, August 2013
Kai Staats shares the starting point for his research into human social evolution in the confines of isolated colonies with “A Good Sams Utopia: Human Social Evolution in the Development of Isolated Colonies“. Learn more …
INTERVIEWS
The Biosphere 2 Podcast, August 2023
An Interview with Aaron Bugaj
Kai is a veteran developer, designer, filmmaker, and scientist, and is the Director of SAM, a Space Analog for the Moon and Mars at Biosphere 2. SAM is a hi-fidelity, hermetically sealed Mars habitat analog with greenhouse, living quarters, airlock, pressure suits, and a half acre Mars yard. Since 2021 Kai and his team have been constructing SAM, and just last month, SAM hosted it’s first two sealed missions, Inclusion 1 and Inclusion 2. Listen to the full interview via Spotify or Apple Podcast
Episode 350: Simulating residency on another world, January 2023
for Arizona Public Media
Scientists predict people might spend years living off-world in the coming decades. Researcher Kai Staats describes how the University of Arizona’s Biosphere 2 is being used to practice long-duration stays on the moon and Mars. Kai Staats spoke with Tim Swindle, director of the University of Arizona Space Institute. Listen to the five minutes interview …
The Space Show with Dr. David Livingston, July 2022
We welcomed Kai Staats back to the program to provide us with an update on the SAM space analog for the Moon and Mars at Biosphere 2 which is now part of the University of Arizona. Kai was first with us on Jan. 5, 2021. Listen to the full interview.
Space Radio with Dr. Paul Sutter, June 10, 2021
Simulating Mars Habitats with Kai Staats with Paul Stutter and Space Radio Live. Recorded live from the University of Arizona Biosphere 2.
The Space Show with Dr. David Livingston, January 5, 2021
“We welcomed Trent Tresch back to the show and Kai Staats for the first time to discuss the SAM analog study at Biosphere 2 in Arizona. Our 65 minute discussion started by my asking Kai about his background and what specifically led him to the point of developing the SAM simulation model …
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 …
An interview for Self Made, December 2018
Host Andy Albright travels America to find entrepreneurs from wildly diverse backgrounds and companies share their big idea, their struggles, triumphs and their advise to others who want to take the path of Self Made. Farm, Mars, Movies, Brewery, Episode 9, Amazon
Looking Up, September 2017
Interview with Kechil Kirkham, Industrial Astronomer and weekly host. Find out about gravitational waves and the latest news about their detection from one of the visiting scientists at LIGO, Kai Staats.
WOSU Radio – NPR Affiliate, September 2016
Space Colonization by All Sides with Ann Fisher, with guests Dr. Paul Sutter (OSU CCAPP), Fraser Cain (Universe Today), Katherine Gorringe (documentary filmmaker), and Dr. Pete Roma (NASA HI-SEAS). Discussed is space travel, life on Proxima B, and the HI-SEAS one year mission.
Weekly Space Hangout, Universe Today, June 2016
Hosted by Fraser Cain, a live video interview with Kai Staats and Michael Landry, lead detection scientist at LIGO, Hanford. About filmmaking, the second LIGO detection of merging black holes, and translating science for the public audience.
Casimir, January 2016
“Why Does Mars Matter?”, an interview by Victoria Young for the South African based blog site which “explores the space between” in speaking with writers, artists, inventors, designers, filmmakers, chefs, scientists and travellers.
RealSpace with Dr. Paul Sutter, December 2015
“Making films about Science, Mars Analogues, and Streaking in Low Pressure Atmospheres”
Recorded at the South African offices of the SKA, we discuss filmmaking, surfing, living on Mars, underwater cities, civil war, a brief history of human migration, beans on toast, and of course, streaking in a low pressure atmosphere.
Tatler, May 2015
Film of the Stars about LIGO, A Passion for Understanding
For the Southern Suburbs Tatler, Cape Town, South Africa
Fiat Physica, December 2014
“Chatting Astronomy with Kai Staats”