Aurelia in 2024

Written By Aurelia Institute

For our small but mighty team, it’s been our biggest year yet. I mean that in every sense: We launched our 24-foot TESSERAE Space Habitat Pavilion to the public in Seattle. Our new space-grade, self-assembling TESSERAE tiles are 2.5 times larger than our original MIT prototype, and headed to the ISS in 2025 fresh off the news of our granted patent. We flew a whopping four zero gravity flights for our Fellows, invited startups, and an ever-growing cohort of Horizon program researchers as we aim to profoundly democratize access to space. Our big launch into investing, through the new Aurelia Foundry Fund, has now supported 13 companies (and counting) that are revolutionizing our access to orbit and the types of products and services that can be deployed in service of Earth’s citizens.

This year saw some fascinating advances in planning and development for the post-ISS era. In October, Ellen Eberhardt wrote an excellent, in-depth article in Dezeen about the burgeoning field of space architecture. She reported on the ground from the 2024 International Astronautical Congress in Milan, where Annika Rollock, Aurelia’s VP for Engineering, ran a “campfire session” on generative AI for the design, construction, and operation of deep space habitats. And at ICES 2024, Rollock presented on our TESSERAE Orbital Case Study (more on that below), and where space agencies, architecture firms, engineers, and startups convened to discuss the rise of commercial space stations.

The ISS remains an astonishing feat of human ingenuity, and the locus of invaluable research and innovation. It has opened the doors to all-new avenues of possibility in biotechnology and medicine, climate and Earth science research, experimental material science technology, and so much more. But as the ISS ages and as humanity’s ambitions expand, we are outgrowing the cylindrical tubes and fixed mission plans that defined the first fifty years of space flight.

So what’s next? How can we make life in space flexible, enticing, and comfortable for explorers of all stripes? How can we scale space architecture to support a burgeoning low Earth orbit economy? From space station designs that will create new jobs in orbit, to labs that empower entirely novel microgravity biotech discoveries, to off-worlding heavy industry for combating the climate crisis, our team is paving a path towards an aspirational future for humanity.

Read on for more highlights from a tremendous year at Aurelia, and explore the ways humanity can put space infrastructure to work for Earth.

Wishing you a peaceful holiday season, and looking forward to working with our amazing community—all of you—on even bigger things in 2025!

Ariel Ekblaw, CEO

 

Growing our orbit

Aurelia has a YouTube channel! Subscribe and explore our featured videos and playlists to find a tour of the TESSERAE Pavilion, talks and interviews, behind-the-scenes action at Autodesk where we are part of the Residency Research Program, and more.

You’ll also find the talk Ariel Ekblaw gave at the Dial Fellows Summit, the kickoff for a year-long fellowship program through Emerson Collective to expand Aurelia’s storytelling and impact.

At our annual Beyond the Cradle event in April, Aurelia hosted a workshop at the MIT Media Lab entitled "Ethics of AI & Space Exploration," developed under Aurelia's Center for Space Ethics & Policy. Led by Aurelia's COO Dr. Albert R. Antosca and Dr. Patrick Lin (Prof. at Cal Poly and Aurelia Fellow), the workshop explored how rapidly developing AI technologies can be designed responsibly and implemented ethically in the context of human space exploration.

On the horizon

We’ve got some pretty spectacular projects and collaborations coming up in 2025, many of which are still under wraps – but here’s a sneak peek at a few:

  • Aurelia Institute is incubating two new spinout companies, Hive Robotics and Rendezvous Robotics, to drive innovation in autonomous, AI-mediated systems for Earth and space.

  • Next year marks the 50th Anniversary of the seminal NASA summer study. To celebrate Gerry O’Neill’s vision and this historic milestone, Aurelia is gathering key stakeholders to re-imagine and execute on a renewed commitment to Spaceship Earth. Stay tuned for invites to our big convening in July, and reach out if you’d like to partner on this big-tent gathering for our space architecture community.

 

Space Habitat R&D

Our flagship project, TESSERAE, continues to be the focus of development across scales. We received great news this year that CEO Ariel Ekblaw’s MIT PhD patent has been granted, and we are delighted to be spinning out Aurelia’s first internally incubated company around this technology.

 

TESSERAE Tiles: Iteration and spaceflight testing

Ever since their first successful mission on the ISS in 2022, we’ve been iterating on the TESSERAE tile design, technology, and materials to improve self-assembly performance. In 2024 we had the opportunity to take the latest generation of tiles on not one, not two, but three parabolic flights. Thanks to intrepid project lead Evan Hilgemann, with support from Annika Rollock, Jamie Miliken, Che-Wei Wang, and intern Sneha Ramshanker, we are testing out scaled-up tiles and new capabilities in preparation for our next ISS mission, which has been confirmed for 2025. We are thrilled to have won a new grant from the ISS National Lab to support this work.

 

TESSERAE Space Habitat Pavilion

Following a successful soft launch in Boston this summer, the Aurelia team brought the TESSERAE Space Habitat Pavilion to Seattle for its public debut at the Museum of Flight. Part of the Home Beyond Earth exhibit, the Pavilion offers an interactive exploration of a future space habitat centered on human comfort and well-being.

The Pavilion acts as both a public outreach tool and a living lab. The two-year process of design, iteration, and assembly practice gave the team the engineering and logistical training necessary to complete large-scale projects, while the interior tiles give us the opportunity to develop functional elements for life and work in space. The debut exhibit features working modules for cooking and eating, wayfinding, and rest, all optimized for a zero gravity environment.

 
 

Watch the video above to learn more about the TESSERAE Space Habitat Pavilion, and our amazing design and installation team – from Pavilion lead and Aurelia co-founder Sana Sharma, to Che-Wei Wang’s inventive structural and inflatable work, to Max Pommier’s imaginative interior design, and expert local deployment by Program Manager Annie Kuan (and many other dedicated team members and collaborators!). Have an idea or invitation for Pavilion’s next stop? Reach out to hello@aureliainstitute.org!

 

TESSERAE Orbital Case Study

Over the course of 2024, we have continued to refine the executive summary of our TESSERAE Orbital Case Study: a preliminary design analysis of a flight-scale version of our self-assembling TESSERAE habitat, imagined as a biotechnology research station.

Annika Rollock presented the executive summary at the 2024 International Conference on Environmental Systems, conveying the content to a technical audience of scientists, engineers, and industry experts and gathering their feedback.

 

The TESSERAE Orbital Case Study is now published, and includes the following key updates:

  • Future recommendations for spacecraft subsystems, such as attitude control, thermal control, and propulsions subsystems;

  • Detailed interior design, including a preliminary layout for the space station galley;

  • Refined mass and volume estimates, including preliminary cutaways for subsystem placement and storage locations within the TESSERAE habitat that includes recommendations for ensuring accessibility and maintainability of spacecraft subsystems.

The R&D team is already beginning work on two new case studies to explore and develop Aurelia’s next habitat concepts after TESSERAE. Stealth for now, but stay tuned for big announcements next year!

 

Education and Outreach

Horizon 2023 + 2024 flights

Aurelia Academy continued to grow this year, with another run of our flagship Microgravity Project Design course and two zero gravity flights. A total of 48 people and 24 projects flew on our Horizon flights this year, with all but five of our fliers experiencing microgravity for the first time!

This year, we flew several R&D experiments from external start-up companies alongside our Aurelia Academy participants, exposing our fellowship fliers to real world technology development in the space industry and supporting the ecosystem of early companies and space founders. Thanks to the dedication of Horizon program leads Annie Kuan and Sean Auffinger, we’re delighted to run this outreach program annually and will be launching the next class and cohort in January 2025. Interested in participating or nominating a Horizon fellow? Email hello@aureliainstitute.org.

 

Aurelia in the wider world

Aurelia continues to expand our efforts to provide educational resources and opportunities for anyone, anywhere, to engage with the new space age.

This year, we were excited to participate in Autodesk’s Make it Real program, an annual creative competition for students aged 13-21. This year’s theme was “Make It Resilient,” challenging students to design habitats for extreme environments. Aurelia Institute provided a 3D starter model based on the TESSERAE Pavilion, and Evan Hilgemann served as a judge in the competition.

We were also delighted to be featured in “Space: The New Frontier,” a new documentary made for IMAX, Giant Screen and specialty theaters. Narrated by Star Trek actor Chris Pine, the film explores the current moment in the new space age and the quest to make spaceflight accessible to all.

This fall Ariel Ekblaw was selected as a Technology and Geopolitics and Defense, Emerging Technology, and Strategy (DETS) Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center, exploring geopolitical rivalry and the future of human spaceflight.

 

Team Highlights

The Aurelia team continues to grow! This year we were excited to welcome three new full-time staff members, who have brought invaluable skills and experience to the team.

 

Welcome to Annie Kuan, Program Manager; Tami Poalucci, Executive Assistant; Stephanie Sjoblom, VP for Strategy & Business Development

 

Celebrating our interns and volunteers: This year we hosted six exceptional students and young professionals, who brought their own expertise and learned through hands-on participation in Aurelia projects.

And we got the whole gang together this summer for a team retreat in the Berkshires:

 

Looking Forward

Looking for ways to engage with or support Aurelia’s work? Keep an eye out for details on these upcoming events:

  • In early 2025, Hive Robotics, which began as the Astro Ant project at MIT, will be part of the To the Moon to Stay payload in collaboration with MIT SEI, NASA and Lunar Outpost

  • Our May 2025 Horizon flight(s), bringing even more new fliers, startups and research projects into zero gravity

  • Ariel Ekblaw is the host of “The Future of Space Exploration,” a new educational series from The Great Courses premiering this spring. Watch a trailer here!

  • Beyond the Cradle – co-hosted by Aurelia Institute and the MIT Media Lab Space Exploration Initiative, on April 24, part of MIT Space Week

As always, please reach out to hello@aureliainstitute.org if you have questions to ask, connections to make, or want to be part of an upcoming event or initiative.

As we continue to grow and take on new projects, we are looking for new partners to support our work and to help scale up our impact. Get in touch today to learn about our sponsorship & collaboration opportunities! Personal donations of any size are always welcome too – thank you for your support. 

 
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Ariel Ekblaw selected for Emerson Collective’s Dial Fellowship