(Sunday August 9th 2026)
Hello Everyone! This event looks very cool and related ! Sorry for the short notice but just found it!
Interview: Keeping Astronauts Healthy in Zero Gravity · Zoom · Luma
Agenda
12:00pm to 1:00pm PST
Mixer/discussion/introductions (not recorded/broadcast)
1:00pm to 2:00pm PST
Special speaker
Description
We’ve spent over sixty years learning what space does to the human body, and the list is long: bone loss, muscle wasting, vision changes, radiation exposure, immune system disruption, and the psychological toll of isolation. Every one of these is a problem we have to solve before we can send crews on multi-year missions.
The Small Steps & Giant Leaps community is gathering to look at the full arc—where this research started, what decades of orbital medicine have taught us, and what still stands between us and a healthy human presence across the solar system.
Expect conversations on:
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The history of space medicine—from the first flights to decades aboard the ISS
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What microgravity does to the body—bone, muscle, the cardiovascular system, and more
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Radiation and the exposure crews face beyond Earth’s protective field
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Countermeasures—exercise, pharmaceuticals, artificial gravity, and what actually works
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The Mars-mission problem—years in deep space with no resupply and no quick return
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Where we go from here to make long-duration human spaceflight survivable and routine
You can’t settle the solar system with a crew that can’t stand up when they land. Come understand the science of keeping humans alive out there.
Speaker(s)
- Donna Roberts, MD, MS
Donna Roberts, MD, MS serves as Chief Scientist and Senior Partner for American Deep Tech, providing scientific and technical expertise to the firm in the areas of biotechnology, advanced materials, AI, and in-space manufacturing. Previously, Dr. Roberts was Deputy Chief Scientist of the International Space Station (ISS) National Laboratory where she worked with other governmental agencies to support research on the ISS that brings benefit to Earth and fosters the development of a low Earth orbit economy. Donna was a leader on the National Academy of Science’s, “A Science Strategy for the Human Exploration of Mars, 2025”, and developed the medical science strategy for the first planned mission to Mars.
In her role as Deputy Chief Scientist at the ISS Donna was a key leader focused on all commercial technologies being implemented on station as part of her portfolio. She is also a Professor in the Department of Radiology at the Medical University of South Carolina
(MUSC). In addition to her clinical work as a neuroradiologist, she has led multiple NASA-funded studies investigating the impact of spaceflight on the human brain. More recently, she investigated the brain health of the private astronauts participating in the SpaceX-sponsored Polaris Dawn Mission. She has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications, been featured on CNN (SpaceX Polaris Dawn crew reveals impacts of history-making mission | CNN), and has given TED-X talks (https://youtu.be/S8eb8RNQ5mc) describing her research.
Dr. Roberts holds an MD degree from MUSC, an MS degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Colorado, and a BS degree in Computer Engineering from Clemson University. She completed Radiology residency training at MUSC and a fellowship in Neuroradiology at the University of California, San Francisco.
- Anna Brady-Estevez: Bio coming soon!
