Our Mission

The Latin term “ad astra, vita” translates into “taking life to the stars”.

Just like the five-year mission of the original Star Trek starship Enterprise NCC-1701, our initial five-year mission is to develop a free and open access resources portal to provide information and opportunities for engagement with space health/space medicine and life sciences (“SMLS”) and medicine in extreme environments. Our mission also includes the provision of education and outreach activities, and encouraging and inspiring ‘the next generation’ into STEAM education, including through formal and informal mentoring.

We are proud to have hosted the inaugural Space Health Symposium in 2020, and to have been a key collaborator for ASBX 2021 and the International Humans in Space Summit 2022.

Our new Australian Space Agency has called upon the space community to be entrepreneurial, and this new innovative initiative is designed to answer this call.

What are the “space life sciences“?
NASA’s definition: “The space life sciences study interactions between living organisms and characteristics of the space environment. These studies specifically address the structure and function of living organisms in space and interdependent relationships of organisms with each other and/or the space environment while also touching on the origin, evolution and potential for extraterrestrial life.”

The ad astra vita project has an aspirational goal to be a “CAPCOM” for space health/SMLS news, information and opportunities.

The “CAPCOM News” bulletin posted from time to time on the Blog contains a wide range of information relating to upcoming webinars, conferences, courses, other opportunities and topical information and resources.

The Resources section is divided into a number of components, including a variety of static resources pages providing links to relevant organisations, conferences, courses, books, journals, our YouTube channel, etc. and active pages populated with news items and online feeds. There is also a special section for Events.

Special consideration is given to information that is useful for tertiary students, such as student groups, scholarship opportunities and post-graduate training opportunities.

The Resources portal is intended to encompass the broader scope of humans in austere and extreme environments, and as such includes various relevant areas of medicine, for instance aerospace medicine, wilderness and expedition medicine, mountain medicine, disaster health, etc. We are happy to receive contributions from readers.

The ad astra vita project consultancy encompasses services such as space health/SMLS education and outreach, policy and guideline development, research, writing and editing, project design and management, human resourcing, etc.