Thought Leader Profile
Ariel Ekblaw
Director, MIT Space Exploration InitiativeAs founder and director of the MIT Space Exploration Initiative (SEI), Ariel drives aerospace-related research across science, engineering, art, and design and coordinates an annually recurring cadence of space flight opportunities (parabolic flights, suborbital launches, and ISS missions). She manages a 10-person direct staff team and leads fundraising, strategic partnerships, and collaborations across MIT and with external space industry partners.
In just one year, Ariel grew the Initiative from grass-roots interest to a community of over 50 graduate students, faculty, and staff who are now actively engaged in rigorously prototyping the artifacts of our space exploration future. Now four years old, the Initiative includes a portfolio of over 40 research projects (from satellite constellation algorithms to astrobiology to space architecture) and supports R&D prototyping sessions, launch contracts for project deployment in space environments, an annual flagship event (Beyond the Cradle), and project mentorship from an expanding network of space exploration advisors.
Ariel mentors Initiative research projects and provides technical advice for all mission deployments. Her SEI endeavors have been featured in WIRED (March 2020 cover story) and the Wall Street Journal, and on the BBC, CNN, NPR, IEEE and AIAA proceedings, and more. Her personal research passion revolves around space architecture, building on her MIT PhD thesis on self-assembling mega-structures in orbit (TESSERAE: Tessellated Electromagnetic Space Structures for the Exploration of Reconfigurable, Adaptive Environments).
Speaker at FiRe 2018
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News for Ariel Ekblaw
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Posted on Tue Aug 22, 2023, 7:00 am
Feet on Earth, head in the stars - MIT Technology Review -
Posted on Thu Apr 20, 2023, 7:00 am
Ariel Ekblaw Wants To Go to Space So We Can Save Earth - Inverse -
Posted on Fri Jul 8, 2022, 7:00 am
Ariel Ekblaw explains the future of space stations - Fast Company -
Posted on Wed May 11, 2022, 7:00 am
3 Questions: Ariel Ekblaw on building beautiful architecture in space - MIT News -
Posted on Wed Jul 28, 2021, 7:00 am
Life in space: Preparing for an increasingly tangible reality - MIT News -
Posted on Wed Mar 25, 2020, 7:00 am
Five MIT payloads deployed on the International Space Station - MIT News -
Posted on Tue May 14, 2019, 7:00 am
Alumna brings Yale approach to MIT Space Exploration Initiative - Yale News -
Posted on Fri May 3, 2019, 7:00 am
Six suborbital research payloads from MIT fly to space and back - MIT News