Spaceflight Research

The International Institute for Astronautical Sciences (IIAS) is expanding access to conduct robust scientific research and technology demonstrations in suborbit. Virgin Galactic spaceflight G05 is an important step for IIAS and its partners to perform novel advancements in microgravity.

Kellie Gerardi will conduct three (3) different experiments while aboard the G05 spaceflight. Data collected will impact understanding of human physiology, as well as establish the utility of novel technologies that could be used for future human spaceflight pursuits and humankind on Earth.  IIAS’s partnerships offer the opportunity to expand and support the impact of commercial space innovations.

IIAS is facilitating exciting and impactful scientific research through Virgin Galactic missions, now and in the future, to benefit life on Earth.

Kellie Gerardi is a payload specialist and bioastronautics researcher with IIAS and flying to space on the Galactic 05 research mission. She has extensive microgravity experience evaluating commercial spacesuit prototypes and conducting healthcare and fluid research during parabolic flight campaigns. In addition to her work in space, Kellie leads Mission Operations for Palantir Technologies, serves on the Defense Council for the Truman National Security Project and served on the Board of Directors for The Explorers Club, whose esteemed flag she carried during a crew rotation at the Mars Desert Research Station. She is the author of Not Necessarily Rocket Science and the acclaimed children’s picture book series LUNA MUNA, which was read aloud from the International Space Station in 2023. Kellie lives in Jupiter, Florida with her husband Steven and their daughter Delta V.

THERMODYNAMIC FLUID RESEARCH: The question of how a confined fluid behaves in a low-gravity environment is of scientific, technological, and safety importance, but not yet thoroughly understood. Kellie will be operating a fluid cell designed to help us better predict and control the shape and location of fluid within a container in microgravity. During spaceflight, she will collect data about where in the container the liquid will settle, and how difficult it will be to dislodge the liquid from that location. This data can be used to help inform new technologies ranging from spacecraft life support systems to new syringe designs for administering medication in space.

BIOMETRIC DATA COLLECTION: The commercial spaceflight industry is opening up a new era of access to space, which presents an opportunity to build more comprehensive human health frameworks for commercial human spaceflight. Kellie will be collecting biometric data during her flight with the Astroskin biomonitoring device, a lightweight smart shirt and all-in-one sensor suite developed by Carré Technologies. The Astroskin is currently in use by astronauts aboard the International Space Station, but Kellie’s flight will be the first time data is also collected during the launch, re-entry, and landing portions of flight.

GLUCOSE MONITORING RESEARCH: Kellie will deploy and wear a continuous glucose sensor to measure and store glucose readings during her spaceflight. The blood glucose data gleaned from this study may offer insight as to how quickly insulin-resistance develops during spaceflight. This will be the first deployment of a continuous glucose monitor to the spaceflight environment.

EVALUATING RESEARCHER OPERATIONS: Galactic 05 is the world’s first non-government suborbital research mission, and represents a new era of access to space for researchers and their payload experiments. As the first IIAS payload specialist, Kellie will be evaluating the researcher experience in order to refine and optimize payload integration and operational protocols with the Virgin Galactic platform for future IIAS-sponsored research missions, as well as building out a more comprehensive and optimized payload development, maturation, and operator training program at IIAS and with our institutional partners.

Polaris Dawn, the first of up to three spaceflights in the Polaris Program, endeavors to rapidly advance human spaceflight capabilities by demonstrating new technologies and conducting extensive scientific research to expand our knowledge of humans adapting, living and working in space. IIAS is one of 23 partner institutions whose research was selected for flight with the goal of advancing both human health on Earth and on future long-duration spaceflights.

Together with Nebula Research and Development, IIAS will fly a series of automated pupillometers, widespread tools that are used to measure intracranial pressure non-invasively, most commonly used in intensive care units. Most researchers believe the headward fluid shifts caused by microgravity result in increased intracranial pressure in astronauts, possibly leading to Spaceflight Associated Neuroocular Syndrome (SANS). This study proposes using the common hospital tool as a way to non-invasively measure intracranial pressure in spaceflight.