Human Spaceflight Research
Broader Impacts
The mission of my work, both personal and professional, is to bridge the gap of disability access in human spaceflight. My work in human spaceflight research emphasizes the importance of thoroughly understanding the performance characteristics of critical life support technology that will enable insulin dependent diabetics to pursue a career as an astronaut. Through the MIT Space Exploration Initiative, I am testing insulin pumps on a parabolic microgravity flight. Future work involves sending this technology on suborbital spaceflights and eventually to the International Space Station.
Qualifying Insulin Delivery Pumps for Human Spaceflight (QuIPS)
The mission of this project is to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of insulin delivery devices in micro and hyper gravity environments to advance the accessibility of human spaceflight for the disabled community. Commercially available insulin pumps for treatment of insulin dependent diabetes (type 1 and 2) are currently not qualified to operate in the space environment. This work seeks to assess the fluid delivery performance of COTS insulin pumps in both micro and hyper gravity and make recommendations for use in future spaceflight missions. The Zero-G parabolic flight environment will serve as an analog to the types of transient gravitational loadings experienced during human-led missions, thus providing a foundation to expand testing to suborbital and orbital flights, and ultimately carving a path to space for the diabetic community.
This flight project is supported by the MIT Media Lab’s Space Exploration Initiative, MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, AstroAccess and Stanford Medicine. For the research I am conducting on the microgravity flight, I have been selected as an AstroAccess Ambassador. As an ambassador, I act as a liaison between the disabled community and the spaceflight community, bridging the gap of access to human spaceflight and advocating on behalf of my disabled peers.
