Living in Space

Living and working in space requires all the attributes of an earthly existence to succeed. But farming cannot be undertaken in space as it has been on Earth, the vast open areas considered necessary for human health will likely be unavailable for some time, and large volumes of water, critical to human survival, must either be transported from Earth or mined from off-world sources. What new developments and technologies will allow us to take our biological environment with us into space, efficiently and sustainably? Join the experts in this new and emerging field as we seek the exciting answers.

Chair:

Dr. Sherry Bell

National Space Society

Chair:

Dr. Sherry Bell

National Space Society

Dr. Sherry E. Bell has written numerous articles and chapters, edited a book, Living in Space, and frequently presents at space conferences. For the past several years she has been hosting the Living in Space Track at the annual International Space Development Conference. Dr. Bell has a Ph.D. in Industrial Psychology and is a lifetime member of both the Golden Key National Honor Society and Psi Chi (the National Honor Society of Psychology). She is an active member of the National Space Society, and plays several additional roles in other space-related organizations.

Her current interests include Consulting, Evolutionary Psychology, Extrasolar Planets, Genetics, Humans Living in Space, and reading and writing both Science and Science Fiction.

Co-Chair:

Hannah Rens

Project Engineer, Boeing Defense, Space, and Security

National Space Society Board of Directors

Hannah Rens is an aerospace engineer and space settlement advocate. Hannah is currently serving as the Region 3 Representative for the NSS Board of Directors and is a member of the Space Settlement Advocacy Committee, where she has authored a literature review analyzing the scientific feasibility of space settlement. This effort covers over fifty peer reviewed papers published in a wide array of academic journals and establishes the current status of space settlement technology. Cutting edge work in fields such as radiation protection, closed ecosystems, ISRU, and construction methods is examined and compared across potential locations for space settlements throughout the solar system. The impacts of the literature published to date is discussed, and future research opportunities are outlined.

Hannah is currently working as a project engineer within Boeing Defense, Space, and Security. Additionally, she has worked on a Economic Research for Space Development grant from NASA’s Emerging Space Office and the AIAA Space Systems Design Competition. Hannah has a BS in Aerospace Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin. Since 2012, she has been a part of the International Space Settlement Design Competition family of events as a student and volunteer. She has been directly involved with the NSS since 2018, when she presented in the Space Settlement and Space Minerals track at ISDC.

Co-Chair:

Alla Malko, PhD

NSS Awards committee

Co-Chair:

Alla Malko, PhD

NSS Awards committee

After graduating from the Moscow Institute of Energy with a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering, Dr. Malko started her professional carrier in Institute of Nuclear Research of Science Academy in the former Soviet Union. Later she married and moved to the Dominican Republic, where she became a Physics professor at Catholic University of Madre and Maestra. Her second professional carrier was in Oriental Medicine and Acupuncture after earning a PhD in Oriental Medicine from American Liberty University and post graduate studies in Korea, China, Japan and Russia. Dr. Malko was a teacher and a supervisor at Eastern School of Acupuncture and Tradition Medicine in Montclair, NJ for 14 years and a visiting lecturer at the Institute for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. Dr Malko is a founder of Traditional and High-Tech Acupuncture LLC, a successful health care business in New Jersey.

From a very young age Dr. Malko was fascinated with astronomy and space travel, to which she dedicated a large part of her free time. In the United State she joined the Planetary, Mars, and the National Space Societies, where she is an active member and sponsor.

Dr Malko is a world traveler and scuba diver. She had visited all continents of planet Earth and declared that her next step is Mars. She already has Zero G experience with Zero G flight from Florida, where she successfully applied the natural healing power of acupressure to help with nausea in Zero G conditions.