Can we improve our health on Earth and beyond? Our health and medical professionals say “Yes!” NSS BioSpace is currently encouraging changes physically, mentally, and spiritually to maximize our health. Visit with our speakers who are simplifying major medical capabilities to travel into deep space, and finding the sources of good health. Find out how we are restoring our health for deep space flight, designing healthy spaces, and making a spacefaring civilization possible. See how we are educating citizens to maintain health for, during, and after space flight. Discover your role in the coming age of expansion and wealth of humanity!
| Morning Session · 10:00 am – 12:00 noon | |
| 10:00 am | Private Astronauts—Medical Considerations for Space Missions in LEO Dr. William Tarver — NASA, retired |
| 10:20 am | Eliminating the Pre-Conditions for Spaceflight Injury via Restoring Our Evolved Capacity for Good Health Dr. William Gardiner — Laboratory Consulting Sources |
| 10:30 am | Contests, Civilization and Space Migration Dr. Gerald McLaughlin — National Institutes of Health, retired |
| 10:50 am | Fungal Frontiers: How Might We Adopt the Genes That Protect the Chernobyl Fungus from Ionizing Radiation? Natalie Byrd — Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University |
| 11:15 am | NSS Live in a Healthy Space Design Competition Presentation |
| 11:30 am | Starlink-Enabled Mobile Telehealth in Appalachia: Advancing Rural Healthcare Through an NP-Led, Digitally Connected One Health Model Dr. Paula Hill-Collins — St. Mary's Health Wagon |
| 11:45 am | Synthetic Biology Approaches to the Next Generation Space Nutrition Leo Shiina — Stanford Online High School |
| 12:00 noon — Lunch Break | |
| Afternoon Session · 2:00 pm – 6:00 pm | |
| 2:00 pm | Space Exodus to the "Vacuum Deserts" of Space Will Restore Our Evolved Capacity for Unlimited Life Dr. William Gardiner — Laboratory Consulting Sources |
| 2:25 pm | GOLDEN Framework™: Cognitive Mapping for Human–AI Integration in Space Health Ginger Chen — Florida Institute of Technology |
| 2:50 pm | Artificial Gravity is the Best Countermeasure in Space Richard Kacik — Retired Aerospace Engineer |
| 3:15 pm | A Plan to Test and Implement Artificial Gravity Richard Kacik — Retired Aerospace Engineer |
| 3:40 pm | The Chiral Label Release Experiment: An Experiment to Irrefutably Prove Extant Microbial Life on Mars Dr. Ron Levin — Raytheon Technologies |
| 4:05 pm | From Replicants to Pioneers: Engineering Humanity for the Final Frontier Dr. Erik Seedhouse — Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University |
| 4:30 pm | The Anthropocene Era Imperative: Exporting Our Grown Children for the Sake of Our Sibling Species! Bennett Rutledge — Denver Space Society |
| 4:55 pm | Healthy on the Moon Thanks to the Original Galileo Holger Isenberg — Independent Researcher |
| 5:15 pm | AI Workshop: How to Validate AI Output and Avoid "Hallucinations" When Developing Scientific Hypotheses Dr. William Gardiner — Laboratory Consulting Sources |
| 5:30 pm | Panel: How Will People Young and Old Prepare in Mind, Body and Spirit for Mars Departure Dr. William Tarver (NASA, retired), Dr. Gerald McLaughlin (National Institutes of Health, retired), Ginger Chen (Florida Institute of Technology), Richard Kacik (Retired Aerospace Engineer), Dr. Erik Seedhouse (Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University), and Holger Isenberg (Independent Researcher) · Moderator: Dr. William Gardiner (Laboratory Consulting Sources) |
| 6:00 pm — END | |
BioSpace
Session Chair Info
William W. “Bill” Gardiner
Lab Director, Analytech Div. of Laboratory Consulting Sources, Inc.
William W. “Bill” Gardiner is a professional environmental scientist (MSES, School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University 1976) who operates Analytech, a Division of Laboratory Consulting Sources, Inc outside of Atlanta continuously since 1981. He is a Licensed Water Analyst (LWA) registered in the State of Georgia. Bill has been a participating member since 1975 of the National Space Society and the predecessor L-5 Society, founded on the vision Read More
BioSpace
Session Speakers Info
Ginger Chen
Data Scientist, Florida Institute of Technology
Ginger Chen is a researcher of human-AI cognitive systems, specializing in analytical intensity, persistence, and theory-building in qualitative research. She is completing her doctoral program at Florida Institute of Technology this spring. Ginger is the developer of the GOLDEN Framework™, a six-step methodology rooted in ethical and reflexive human-AI collaboration in qualitative analysis, designed to advance learner modeling and enhance human cognitive capabilities across diverse contexts. Her work integrates Interpretative Read More
Paula Hill-Collins
Vice President and Clinical Director, St. Mary's Health Wagon DBA Health Wagon
Dr. Paula Hill-Collins is a nurse practitioner, rural health leader, and internationally recognized advocate for health equity, serving as Vice President/Clinical Director of The Health Wagon, the nation’s oldest free mobile healthcare clinics. For over 20 years, she has advanced access to medical, dental, vision, and behavioral health services for underserved communities across Appalachia, reaching over 28,000 patient encounters annually. She leads innovative, nurse practitioner–driven models that bring care directly Read More
Holger Isenberg
Independent Researcher & Founder, areo.info
Holger Isenberg has a master’s degree equivalent in Computer Science from the Technical University Dortmund, Germany and has worked in systems operation and consultation around Java-based enterprise applications since 1999 in Germany and moved in 2016 to Silicon Valley, now solving customer problems at a company specialized on providing high performance Java platforms. As independent researcher he is applying software engineering skills on public data provided by spaceflight missions for Read More
Richard Kacik
Aerospace Engineer (Ret.), NSS Contest Judge
Rich Kacik is a retired aerospace engineer with 35 years of experience in satellite mission control, mission planning, anomaly resolution, and orbit optimization. Following his 8.5 years’ service in the U.S. Air Force, he worked for Lockheed Martin and the company now known as Arcfield. He earned a B.S. degree in Aerospace Engineering from West Virginia University and a M.S. degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Read More
Dr. Ron Levin
Engineering Fellow, Raytheon Technologies
Ron Levin, Ph.D. is a Raytheon Technologies Engineering Fellow with 40 years of experience in radar signal processing, especially Ground Moving Target Indicator (GMTI). Working for MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Lockheed Martin and RTX he designed signal processing algorithms. He has authored many technical publications on radar, the structure of atomic nuclei and his hobby, the search for living micro-organisms on Mars. He followed his father’s study of Martian Biology starting Read More
Gerald Mclaughlin
Co-Manager, NSS Live in a Healthy Space Contest, NIH (Ret.)
Gerald has built an extensive career in academics, research, and science administration, serving at prestigious institutions including Berkeley, the University of Iowa, Notre Dame, Texas A&M, Emory, the University of Illinois, and Purdue. His professional output is highlighted by seventy biomedical publications as well as significant experience managing grants and contracts, including work with the NIH. In addition to his academic work, he is deeply involved with the National Space Read More
Dr. Erik Seedhouse
Associate Professor Space Operations, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
Erik Seedhouse is a professor in Spaceflight Operations at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. He holds pilot, scuba, and sky-diving licenses and in his spare time works as an astronaut instructor for the International Institute of Astronautical Sciences, a film consultant to Hollywood, a professional speaker, triathlon coach, and author. He regularly ventures into the mountains and has reached the summits of Kilimanjaro, Aconcagua, Elbrus, Rainier, Island Peak, Denali, Kosciusko, and in Read More
Leo Shiina
Student, Stanford OHS
Leo Shiina is a sophomore at Stanford Online High School. Since first participating in the International Space Development Conference (ISDC) in 2022, he has been submitting proposals every year. In 2026, he won the Grand Prize for Live in a Healthy Space with his project “Synthetic Biology Approaches to Next-Generation Space Nutrition”. He had previously won the Grand Prize in 2023 at the NSS Gerard K. O’Neill Space Settlement Contest. Read More
Bill Tarver
Physician, NASA (Retired)
Bill retired from NASA after 20 years as a flight surgeon in 2026. He has worked directly with NASA and international partner astronauts/cosmonauts preparing and caring for them for long duration space missions on the ISS. He has worked in the commercial LEO development program, developed astronaut selection medical standards, been director of the JSC Medical Clinic as well as the JSC Flight Medicine Clinic. His specialty is space medicine Read More