Space travel and becoming an interplanetary species have always been part of human’s greatest imagination. Research in space exploration helps us advance our knowledge in fundamental sciences, and challenges us to design new technology and create new industries for space. However, keeping a human in space is one of the most challenging aspects of current space programs. Our biological body, which evolved in the earth specific environment, can barely survive by itself in space's extreme conditions with high radiation, low gravity, and etc. This is similar for the moons and planets in the solar system that humans plan to visit. Therefore, researchers had been developing different types of human-computer interfaces systems that support human both physical and mental performance in space.  With recent advancements in aerospace engineering, and the democratized access to space through aerospace tech startups such as SpaceX, Blue Origin, etc., space research is becoming more plausible and accessible. Thus, there is an exciting opportunity for researchers in HCI to contribute to the great endeavor of space exploration by designing new types of interactive systems and computer interfaces that can support humans living and working in space and elsewhere in the solar system.

Submission Guidelines

Thus, there is an exciting opportunity for researchers in HCI to contribute to the great endeavor of space exploration by designing new types of interactive systems and computer interfaces that can support human living in space and beyond. We invite researchers from both academia and industry to submit a short position paper in the theme discussed above. We will evaluate submissions on fit, ability to stimulate discussion, and contribution to the future of HCI. On our website we have included examples of past work in this area to help inspire and inform position papers.

Papers should be maximum 4-pages and in the CHI Extended Abstracts format. Submission can be accessed through our website: http://spacechi.media.mit.edu/. The submission deadline is February 15th, 2021. At least one author of each accepted position paper must attend the workshop and all participants must register for at least one day of the conference. We will host accepted papers on the workshop website for participants and others to review. 

Committees

• Pat Pataranutaporn, MIT Media Lab
• Valentina Sumini, MIT Media Lab
• Ariel Ekblaw, MIT Media Lab
• Melodie Yashar, San Jose State Research Foundation, NASA Ames
• Sandra Häuplik-Meusburger, Vienna University of Technology
• Susanna Testa, Politecnico di Milano
• Marianna Obrist, University College London
• Dorit Donoviel, Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH)
• Joseph Paradiso, MIT Media Lab
• Pattie Maes, MIT Media Lab

Contact

All questions about submissions should be emailed to patpat@media.mit.edu