Kellie Gerardi is a commercial spaceflight industry professional and popular science communicator. She is a Scientist-Astronaut candidate with Project PoSSUM, the first crewed suborbital research program to study the upper atmosphere and the role it plays in understanding our global climate. She was previously one of 100 candidates selected to colonize Mars via Dutch non-profit Mars One.
Career
Gerardi serves as the media specialist of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. Gerardi is also a member 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. Gerardi co-chaired the 110th and 111th Explorers Club Annual Dinners, in which the Club honored space entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, as well as scientific luminaries Stephen Hawking and Neil deGrasse Tyson. 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. In 2018, Gerardi was named as a Scientist-Astronaut Candidate with Project PoSSUM, the first crewed suborbital spaceflight research program. The crew will study noctilucent clouds in the mesosphere, and their relation to global climate change.
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 prove 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 and the Canadian Space Agency in Ottawa. 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. 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.
Personal life
Gerardi's 2015 wedding to Steven Baumruk was officiated by American astronaut and former International Space Station CommanderMichael López-Alegría. The reception included a recorded dinner toast from NASA astronautScott Kelly aboard the International Space Station. Gerardi and Baumruk live outside Washington, D.C.
