![]() ![]() Through IIAS, Gerardi has already been on multiple parabolic, or gravity-free, research flights, which simulate weightless space conditions for mere seconds at a time by flying at high altitudes. The institute's overarching mission is in promoting the democratization of space by training private citizens to go to space and conduct research there. IIAS is now funding Gerardi's spaceflight and her training. Gerardi completed an IIAS program called "Project PoSSUM," which offers courses (starting at $4,000 for a five-day in-person course, plus three weeks worth of webinars) that include lessons on topics such as bioastronautics and atmospheric studies, as well as training for space conditions in high altitude flights (where trainees experience weightlessness and even practice moving around in a spacesuit). In 2017, she joined the International Institute of Astronautical Sciences (IIAS) to study bioastronautics in her free time and be a part of an IIAS program that trains private citizens for spaceflight and space research. ![]() (The mission had been criticized by scientists for not being feasible, and the venture filed for bankruptcy in 2019.) In 2014, Gerardi also got to spend two months as a crewmember at the Mars Desert Research Station, a prototype laboratory in Utah that simulates conditions on Mars, after she was accepted to the Mars One mission, a venture that had planned to send the first people to Mars by 2025 but was eventually shut down. Gerardi called that her "aha moment" in which she realized that the commercial spaceflight industry was opening the door for a wider range of people to go to space. She decided to join after she met club president Richard Garriott, a millionaire video game developer who had previously paid $30 million to go to space for 12 days in 2008. From 2014 to 2020, Gerardi worked on business development for aerospace company Masten Space Systems.ĭuring that time, Gerardi joined the Explorer's Club, which "promotes the scientific exploration of land, sea, air, and space," according to its website, in 2012. In 2012, Gerardi started working as a media specialist with the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, an industry association that lobbies on behalf of commercial spaceflight companies. Gerardi says she never really considered being an astronaut herself until she started participating in public science campaigns over the past decade. She's also a popular science influencer who regularly posts space- and STEM-focused content on social media, including to her nearly half a million followers on TikTok. Gerard, who lives in Florida with her husband, Steven Baumruk, and their 3-year-old daughter, Delta, works on a customer support team at Peter Thiel's software company. They produced 7.7 million pounds of thrust and brought the Saturn V to nearly 58 km above the Earth at a top speed of and to a speed of almost 10,000 km/hr.Gerardi got one step closer to fulfilling a "life-long dream" of heading to space when Virgin Galactic announced in June that the 32-year-old Palantir Technologies project manager and amateur bioastronautics researcher will be on an as yet un-named upcoming search mission aboard one of the private space company's spacecraft.īut perhaps the most exciting part of the trip is that Gerardi is not a professional scientist, and she hopes her trip of a lifetime will help pave the way for a wider range of amateur space enthusiasts, with diverse backgrounds, to reach space. ![]() Each engine is nearly 6 meters tall and 4 meters wide and weighs more than 8,000 kg. The F-1 engines flew on the gigantic Saturn V, still the largest and most powerful rocket ever built in the U.S. "We look forward to the restoration of these engines by the Bezos team and applaud Jeff’s desire to make these historic artifacts available for public display." "This is a historic find and I congratulate the team for its determination and perseverance in the recovery of these important artifacts of our first efforts to send humans beyond Earth orbit," wrote NASA Administrator Charles Bolden in a statement about the recovery. After restoring the engines and stabilizing them to prevent further corrosion, Bezos hopes to display them at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, though the ultimate decision for where to put them will probably involve NASA. The team used remotely operated vehicles tethered with fiber optic cables to work in the black depths at the bottom of the Atlantic. Pulling the F-1 engines up was a tremendous engineering challenge. ![]()
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