Building a Space-Faring Civilization

Dr. Michael A. Schmidt is the CEO and Chief Scientific Officer of Sovaris Aerospace. He is a leader in precision medicine applied to humans operating in extreme environments on Earth and in space. Dr. Schmidt has three decades of experience working with elite performers in extreme environments including astronauts, military Special Forces, NFL, NBA, Olympic athletes, military aviators, and others. This includes his early research within NASA’s Human Systems Integration Division. Dr. Schmidt is the President of the Human Research Program for Civilian Spaceflight and is the former President of the Life Sciences and Biomedical Engineering Branch (LSBEB) of the Aerospace Medical Association. His molecular work in space is highlighted in a special 2024 issue of Nature entitled, “Space Omics.” His recent innovations include the Astronaut Digital Twin. Dr. Schmidt is the 2019 winner of the Research & Development Innovation Award from the Life Sciences and Biomedical Engineering Branch of the Aerospace Medical Association. He is the 2020 recipient of the Marie Marving Award for Excellence in Aerospace Medicine from the Aerospace Medical Association. Dr. Marianne Legato, Emerita Professor of Clinical Medicine at Columbia University, is an internationally known academic physician, author, lecturer, and specialist in gender-specific medicine. She is founding member of the International Society for Gender Medicine and the founder and director of The Partnership for Gender-Specific Medicine at Columbia University and its next iteration, The Foundation for Gender-Specific Medicine. She has published extensively on gender and sex specific medicine, both for the scientific community and for the lay public. She is also the founding editor of the Journal Gender Medicine, and the journal Gender and the Genome. In 1992, Dr. Legato won the American Heart Association’s Blakeslee Award for the best book written for the lay public on cardiovascular disease. The third edition of her textbook, Principles of Gender-Specific Medicine and her most recent book, The Plasticity of Sex., both won Prose awards from the American Association of Editors in 2021 and 2022 respectively. She is a practicing internist in New York City and has been listed each year in New York Magazine and Castle Connolly’s lists "Best Doctors" since their inception in 1993.

1. Icarus Revisited: Exploring the New Frontier of Space. 21st Century Achievements. 22nd-Century Goals and Challenges
2. Terrestrial Space and Celestial Space in Renaissance Art
3. Space – and the Third Great Age of Discovery
4. What do we think about when we think about settling space? An inclusive perspective
5. Reconfiguring Space in Early Modern Europe
6. Vast is not Infinite: Challenges to Governance and Justice due to Concentrated and Finite Space Resources
7. What is the frontier of mining space resources and the human's role
8. What the First Commercial Space Station Means for Humanity
9. The Human Experience of Conducting Engineering and Construction Operations in Space
10. Humanity and the Orbital Age
11. Space Architecture and the Four Futures of Human Space Flight
12. Insights from Spaceflight Team Performance Gleaned from the Exploration of Challenging Environments on Earth
13. Insights from Spaceflight Team Performance Gleaned from the Exploration of Challenging Environments on Earth
14. Risk and systems knowledge in Space
15. Preparing for the Unpredictable: Facilitating Multi-System Resilience in Human Spaceflight
16. Multi-Omic Profiles of SpaceX and Axiom Astronauts and the Cornell Aerospace Biobank
17. Using Functionally Characterized Networks in the Application of Precision Medicine in Space
18. The Astronaut Digital Twin: Accelerating Discovery and Countermeasure Development in the Optimization of Human Space Exploration
19. Lessons Learned Part I: Medical Screening, Standards, and In-flight Medical Incidents, Events, or Risks
20. Lessons Learned Part II: In-flight Medical Equipment, Capabilities, and Countermeasures; and New Medical Paradigms for the Future Flights to LEO and Beyond!
21. Harnessing Neuroplasticity's Features for Civilian Spaceflight through Remediation and Treatment
22. The Critical Imperatives of Behavioral Resiliency in Civilian Space Travelers
23. The Human Research Program for Civilian Spaceflight and Habitation
24. Biotechnology for a Space Faring Civilization - Necessary and Challenging
25. Foundations of a Space Bill of Rights