Kellie Gerardi

Kellie Gerardi is a commercial spaceflight industry professional and popular science communicator. She is a citizen-scientist and conducts bioastronautics research and spacesuit evaluation in microgravity with Project PoSSUM, the first crewed suborbital research program.[1] She is a Director of The Explorers Club [2] and is the author of Not Necessarily Rocket Science: A Beginner's Guide To Life in the Space Age, published November 2020 by Mango.[3] Her work to promote citizen-science and encourage women in STEM has attracted hundreds of thousands of followers on TikTok and Instagram.[4] In 2020 she announced a space and STEAM-themed fashion line for adults and children.[5]

Kellie Gerardi
Kellie Gerardi
Born (1989-02-16) February 16, 1989
Jupiter, Florida
OccupationSpace Industry Professional
ChildrenDelta V. Baumruk

Career

Gerardi leads Special Projects for the Commercial Spaceflight Federation and serves on the Defense Council for the Truman National Security Project.[6]

Gerardi is also a Director of The Explorers Club and serves on the Space Committee. In 2014 she became the youngest member to co-chair The Explorers Club Annual Dinner (ECAD). Gerardi co-chaired the 110th and 111th Explorers Club Annual Dinners, in which the Club honored space entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos,[7] as well as scientific luminaries Stephen Hawking and Neil deGrasse Tyson. In 2020, she was elected to the Board of Directors.

In 2013, Gerardi was among 1,058 applicants selected as potential crew members for Mars One, a private company currently endeavoring to establish a human colony on Mars. In 2015, Gerardi was among 100 finalists selected.

Gerardi appeared on The View in 2013 to discuss the future of spaceflight. She led a 2014 industry study for DARPA, exploring the budgetary, technical, and programmatic components of the XS-1 program through a series of industry workshops. She later led business development for Masten Space Systems, a prime contractor on the program. She currently serves the company in an advisory capacity.

In 2015, Gerardi was named a "Rising Talent" by the Women's Forum for the Economy and Society, an international initiative aiming to distinguish talented young women on their way to becoming influential figures in global economies and societies. Gerardi was also shortlisted in the Kruger Cowne One Young World Rising Star Programme. In 2016 she was listed on the Center for Development and Strategy's Top 30 Under 30 Leaders of Tomorrow.[8]

In 2018, Gerardi was named as a Scientist-Astronaut Candidate with Project PoSSUM (Polar Suborbital Science in the Upper Mesosphere), the first crewed suborbital spaceflight research program.[9] The crew will study noctilucent clouds in the mesosphere, and their relation to global climate change.[10]

Mars research

In February 2015, Gerardi joined an international research team for the 149th crew rotation at the Mars Desert Research Station, a prototype laboratory used by a variety of national space agencies to conduct analog Martian field research and simulate long-duration spaceflight. The seven researchers in Crew 149, including NASA and JAXA scientists, spent two weeks in isolation and performed a variety of scientific experiments, including a forced plant growth study and a survey of extremophiles and cyanobacteria in nearby lichen colonies.

Gerardi's crew notably proved root germination and growth of sorghum seeds and hops rhizomes in Martian regolith simulant, becoming the first team of researchers to demonstrate the ability to produce beer on Mars.

Crew 149 also hosted English comedy television star Karl Pilkington as an honorary crew member, appearing in Season 2, Episode 6 of The Moaning of Life.

Microgravity research

In October 2018, Gerardi flew in a series of microgravity research flights in partnership with the National Research Council (Canada) and the Canadian Space Agency in Ottawa.[11] Gerardi was a Suited Test Subject, flying fully pressurized in a Final Frontier Design IVA spacesuit while conducting a number of experiments in microgravity related to fluid configuration, solid body rotation, and biometrics.[12] Notably, Gerardi tested the Canadian Space Agency's "Bio-Monitor" smart garment, an experiment which launched to the International Space Station in December 2018 with Canadian Astronaut David Saint-Jacques.[13]

Personal life

Gerardi's 2015 wedding to Steven Baumruk was officiated by American astronaut and former International Space Station Commander Michael López-Alegría. The reception included a recorded dinner toast from NASA astronaut Scott Kelly (astronaut) aboard the International Space Station.[14] Gerardi and Baumruk live outside Washington, D.C.

References
  1. "Project PoSSUM :Citizen-Science Astronautics". Project PoSSUM. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
  2. "The Explorers Club". www.explorers.org. Retrieved 2020-10-20.
  3. www.publishersweekly.com https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/new-titles/adult-announcements/article/83630-fall-2020-announcements-science.html. Retrieved 2020-08-07. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  4. Bender, Maddie. "Kellie Gerardi might be the first social media star in space". Inverse. Retrieved 2020-10-20.
  5. "COMING SOON !!". PAPER ROCKET. 2020-10-20. Retrieved 2020-10-20.
  6. "Kellie Gerardi » CFA Society New York". CFA Society New York. 2020-09-15. Retrieved 2020-10-20.
  7. "Inside the ultra-elite Explorers Club that counts Jeff Bezos, Buzz Aldrin, and James Cameron as members". Business Insider. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
  8. "30 Under 30 Leaders". thinkcds.org. Center for Development and Strategy. Retrieved November 23, 2016.
  9. "Kellie Gerardi on Instagram: "So very excited to be a part of the first crewed suborbital research program, studying our upper atmosphere and the role it plays in…"". Instagram. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
  10. "Project PoSSUM :Citizen-Science Astronautics". Project PoSSUM. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
  11. "PoSSUM Scientist-Astronaut Candidates Test Novel Space Suits and Biometric Monitoring Systems in Zero-G with the National Research Council of Canada". Project PoSSUM. 2018-12-03. Retrieved 2019-01-17.
  12. "Microgravity Research". KELLIE GERARDI. 2019-01-17. Retrieved 2019-01-17.
  13. "Bio-Monitor: Keeping an eye on astronauts' vital signs". www.asc-csa.gc.ca. 2014-01-22. Retrieved 2019-01-17.
  14. "Kellie Gerardi". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
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