6 space technologies we can use to improve life on Earth | Danielle Wood

I was 17 when I chose my career.

I was standing outside

on a hot summer night in Florida

and just a few miles from the ocean.

I was waiting for a miracle to happen.

That summer, I was privileged to work as an intern

at NASA's Kennedy Space Center,

and the miracle I was waiting for

was the launch of the Columbia Space Shuttle

carrying the Chandra X-Ray Observatory,

a telescope that would allow scientists to peer into the edge of black holes.

The entire sky filled with light.

And it was as if it was daytime in the middle of the night.

Soon, we could feel the rumble of the engines vibrating in our chests.

And it wasn't a miracle;

it was the combined effort of a team of thousands of people

who worked together

to make was seemed impossible a reality.

And I wanted to join that team.

So I decided to apply to a university where I could study aerospace engineering.

And the following year,

I started at MIT in my engineering training

and joined a student project building space robots.

And everything was going as I planned,

except I was confused about something important.

Now, my confusion arose in my summer breaks.

I traveled to a school in Kenya,

and there I volunteered with girls ages five to 17,

giving them lessons in English and math and science.

And they taught me songs in Swahili.

And mostly, I just spent time getting to know the girls,

enjoying their presence.

And I saw that these girls and the leaders in their community,

they were overcoming important barriers

to allow these girls to have the best possible chances in life.

And I wanted to join that team.

I wanted to be part of a team that would help break down barriers

and improve the lives of girls around the world.

But I was worried that studying aerospace engineering

wasn't the most useful.

I was worried this team in Kenya couldn't use the technology

I was learning about space.

But thankfully, I still learned that I was wrong.

I came back and interned at NASA again,

and this time,

a mentor taught me

that countries like Kenya had been using space technology for decades

to improve the lives in their own countries.

And then I knew that I could have a career in space

and in development.

This idea is not new.

In fact, in 1967, the nations of the world came together

to write the Outer Space Treaty.

This treaty made a bold statement,

saying, "The exploration and use of outer space

should be carried on for the benefit of all peoples,

irrespective of their level of economic or scientific development."

We have not truly lived up to this ideal,

although people have worked for decades to make this a reality.

Forces such as colonialism and racism

and gender inequality

have actually excluded many people from the benefits of space

and caused us to believe that space is for the few

or the rich or elite.

But we cannot afford this attitude,

because the world is engaged in a vital mission

to improve life for everyone.

Our road map for this mission comes from the 17 Sustainable Development Goals

of the United Nations.

All the member states of the United Nations have agreed

that these are priorities between now and 2030.

These goals give us our key moments and opportunities of our time --

opportunities to end extreme poverty,

to insure that everyone has access to food and clean water.

We must pursue these goals as a global community.

And technology from space supports sustainable development.

In fact, there are six space services

that can help us pursue the Sustainable Development Goals.

Over the next few minutes, let's explore these six services,

and see examples of just a few of the goals they help support.

You ready?

OK.

Communication satellites provide access to phone and internet service

to almost any location on Earth.

This is particularly important during times of disaster recovery.

When Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines,

the local communication networks needed to be repaired,

and teams brought in inflatable communication antennas

that could link to satellites.

This was useful during the time of repair and recovery.

Positioning satellites tell us where we are

by telling us where they are.

Scientists can use this technology to track endangered wildlife.

This turtle has been fitted with a system

that allows it to receive location information from positioning satellites,

and they send the location information to scientists

via communication satellites.

Scientists can use this knowledge to then make better policies

and help determine how to keep these animals alive.

Earth observation satellites.

They tell us what's going on in our environment.

Right now, there are about 150 satellites

operated by over 60 government agencies,

and these are just those observing the Earth.

And meanwhile, companies are adding to this list.

Most of the governments provide the data from the satellites for free online.

Some of these satellites provide images like this,

that show what you would see from a camera.

This is an image showing agricultural land in Kansas.

However, the majority of the Earth observation satellites

don't take pictures at all.

They take measurements.

And they combine these measurements with complex computer models

and make beautiful, global visualizations such as this one,

showing the ocean currents

and the temperature of the ocean, globally.

Or we can look at the salt and smoke and dust in the atmosphere,

or the rainfall and snowfall, globally,

as well as the annual cycle of vegetation on land and in the ocean.

Now, scientists can take this information about the rainfall and the vegetation

and use it to understand

what areas on Earth are in danger of a famine or a drought

and provide that information to aid organizations

so they can be prepared with food aid before the hunger becomes severe.

In space, we have an orbiting laboratory on the International Space Station.

The vehicle and everything inside are in a form of free fall

around the Earth,

and they don't experience the effect of gravity.

And because of this, we call it "microgravity."

When astronauts are in the microgravity environment,

their bodies react as if they're aging rapidly.

Their bones and muscles weaken,

and their cardiovascular system and their immune system change.

As scientists study how to keep astronauts healthy in space,

we can take the exercises and techniques we use for astronauts

and transfer them to people on Earth

to improve our health here.

Often, as we develop technology for astronauts and exploration

or for spacecraft,

we can also transfer those inventions to improve life on Earth.

Here's one of my favorites.

It's a water filtration system,

and a key component of it is based on the technology

to filter wastewater on the space station.

It's now being used around the world.

Space is also an infinite source of inspiration,

through education,

through research and astronomy

and that age-old experience of stargazing.

Now, countries around the world are engaging in advancing

their own development

by increasing their local knowledge of engineering and science and space.

Let's meet some of the world's newest satellite engineers.

This is Elyka Abello, from Venezuela.

Elyka is training as a satellite engineer

as part of her national satellite program in Venezuela.

She has designed a software tool

that allows her team to better design the power systems for engineering.

This is Adel Castillo-Duran,

from the Philippines.

Adel is both a meteorologist and a satellite engineer,

and she uses data from satellites in her weather forecasting.

And finally, meet Hala.

Hala is from the Sudan,

and as she was studying electrical engineering as an undergraduate

in Khartoum,

she and several students decided to build their own satellite.

And later, Hala earned a scholarship to study satellite engineering

at the graduate level.

These stories that I've shared with you

all illustrate that space truly is useful for sustainable development

for the benefit of all peoples.

But we have more work to do,

because there are still barriers that exclude people from space

and limit the impact of this technology.

For many people, Earth observation data is complex.

And satellite communication services are too expensive.

And microgravity research just appears to be inaccessible.

This is what motivates my work as a professor at MIT's Media Lab.

I've recently founded a new research group called Space Enabled.

We are working to tear down these barriers that limit the benefits of space.

And we're also going to develop the future applications

that will continue to contribute to sustainable development.

We'll keep on this work

until we can truly say that space is for the benefit of all peoples,

and we are all space enabled.

Thank you.

(Applause)