This year was an exciting year for both MIT and the Space Exploration Initiative as we embarked on our first Lunar surface mission.  SEI sent three payloads to the Lunar surface onboard the Lunar Outpost MAPP rover as part of the Intuitive Machines 2 Mission that landed on the Moon on March 6, 2025.  While the mission did not go entirely to plan and we were unable to operate our active payloads on the Lunar surface, much was learned from this incredible opportunity and we want to share this with you!

This year, we will be celebrating all that we learned on our Lunar mission and sharing this with you all at Beyond the Moon, a half day event with panels, demos and brunch.  Hear from Mission Operators, NASA team members and our industry partners from Lunar Outpost about the mission itself, and where we're going from here.  Get immersed in our virtual mission control, and try driving the AstroAnt for yourself. Join us on April 24th for this and more.  To the Moon!

PROGRAM SCHEDULE: 

9:00 AM     Registration

9:20 AM     We're on the Moon to stay | Opening Remarks

9:30 AM     Mission debrief Panel  

Forrest Meyen, Lunar Outpost, CSO, Moderator 

Amanda Cook, NASA AMES Research Centre, Engineering & Integration

Kaila Pfrang, Lunar Outpost, Thermal Engineer

MIT Payload Leads: Nathan Perry, Don Derek Haddad and Maya Nasr

10:30 AM     Brunch & Demos

Enjoy brunch while exploring the exciting results from our Lunar Mission

12:00 PM   Getting back to the Moon & Beyond

Dava Newman, MIT Media Lab Director, Moderator 

A discussion with astronauts & space industry members :

Michael Barratt, NASA astronaut

Cady Coleman, Former NASA astronaut and author

Erika Wagner, The Exploration Company, Lead of US Business Development

12:50 PM    Closing Remarks

Please contact explorespace@media.mit.edu if you have questions, or are interested in attending but have not received an in-person invitation.

Past years Beyond the Cradle archive here.

Follow,  @ExploreSpace_ML, and @medialab on Twitter for photos and quotes from the day! #SpaceExploration