Not all space-related topics demand a full hour to explain, and some emerging ideas at the ISDC are simply so new and unique that they have not yet been fully explored and developed. The Launch Pad Talks are home to some of the newest and most exciting ideas in space exploration, development, and settlement, by some of the newest voices in the field. Drop in for one or stay for a dozen—the Launch Pad Talks contain some of the most exciting new ideas you will hear this year!
LaunchPad Talks
Session Chair Info
Director of Medical Research Orbital Assembly Corporation
Dr. Shawna Pandya is a physician, aquanaut, scientist-astronaut candidate with the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences (IIAS), skydiver, pilot-in-training, VP Immersive Medicine with Luxsonic Technologies, and Director of IIAS’ Space Medicine Group. Dr. Pandya was on the first crew to test a commercial spacesuit in zero-gravity in 2015. She earned her aquanaut designation on the 2019 NEPTUNE (Nautical Experiments in Physiology, Technology and Underwater Exploration) mission, and completed a second aquanaut mission, NEP2NE. She served as Payload Crew and co-PI of the 2023 IIAS-01 suborbital research flight, as well as a PI and/or co-I for Ax-2, Polaris Dawn and Blue Origin payloads. Her publications include a paper on medical guidelines for commercial suborbital spaceflight, and book chapters on space technologies that have benefitted terrestrial medicine, psychological resilience in long-duration spaceflight, reproduction and sexuality in long-duration spaceflight, and the future of space medicine. Her work is permanently exhibited at the Ontario Science Center alongside Dr. Roberta Bondar, the first Canadian woman in space. In 2022, Dr. Pandya was named to the Explorers’ Club’s “50 Explorers Changing the World,” and in 2024, she was nominated to the Women’s Space Awards in the Medicine and Health category. In 2024, she was further inducted as a full member of the International Astronautical Federation’s Human Spaceflight Committee, and became an aeromedical flight physician. Her work has been profiled by Nature and the Royal Canadian Mint.
