The Space Exploration Initiative (SEI) at the MIT Media Lab and Inploration, a non-profit art and space initiative, will conduct an outreach and education collaboration surrounding the Lunar Mission Control and an innovative and dynamic public exhibit curated by Inploration. This collaboration will commence in the Fall of 2024, and will be realized on the MIT campus.
The project involves constructing a cutting-edge structure designed by leading architects from the School of Architecture + Planning's Program, and manufactured using FOAMGLAS technology to push the boundaries of future architecture. Advising the project are Inploration co-founders, Lawrence Azerrad and Richelle Ellis with additional support from Tiffany Pitoun and Sarah Kraft. The MIT team will be led by Dr. Cody Paige, Director of the Space Exploration Initiative, design architects Matteo Ghidoni, MIT Architecture, and Skylar Tibbits, Associate Professor, Director of Undergraduate Programs, Assistant Director for Education at the Morningside Academy for Design, alongside planetary science software engineer Don Derek Haddad. The exhibit features mission operators working live from within the structure, controlling the lunar mission in real-time.
Visitors will have the unique opportunity to observe the mission as it unfolds, alongside projections and displays of artwork and quotes from Inploration artists, merging perspectives from science, engineering, design, and art. The Lunar Mission Control will manage MIT's payload delivery to a lunar lander and act as a communication hub for creative projects across multiple research stations during the World’s Biggest Analog 2025 (WBA 2025). Inploration will collaborate with SEI student Madelyn Hoying and SEI alumni Sana Sharma to develop a multi-venue creative research initiative corresponding with WBA leadership. The project will explore the necessity to utilize artistic thinking in our efforts to understand space.