INTERNATIONAL ASTRONAUTICAL FEDERATION
The IAF is Proud to Introduce the 2023 IAF Emerging Space Leaders
These students and young professionals were chosen by the IAF Emerging Space Leaders Sub-Committee composed of highly experienced space stakeholders. They will travel to Baku, Azerbaijan in September 2023 to participate in the 74th International Astronautical Congress and have the opportunity to extend their network, gain knowledge and meet space experts!
Shravan Hariharan
Shravan Hariharan is an incoming Advanced Concepts Systems Engineer at Blue Origin, and a recent graduate from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with a S.M. in Aeronautics and Astronautics. At MIT, his research focused on In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU), specifically with the production of oxygen on Mars to support future human space exploration. He is a member of the Mars 2020 Science Team working on the MOXIE project, which is the first ever demonstration of ISRU on another planetary body. At MIT, he worked on utilizing ground-based laboratory testbeds to further characterize the MOXIE system and inform design of a next-generation Martian oxygen production plant. At Blue Origin, he will be working on formulating and evaluating concepts for permanently crewed lunar and on-orbit platforms.
Shravan has also completed internships at various commercial and governmental space organizations, where he has worked on the design, manufacturing, testing, and operations of human-rated and robotic space systems at all project lifecycle phases. He is also an analog astronaut, having completed a mission at the Mars Desert Research Station as Crew Engineer. Shravan is passionate about the development of technology, policy, and commercial partnerships to enable sustainable human exploration of the solar system. Specifically, he believes that space is a resource that can be harnessed to improve the quality of life on Earth, which requires continued decreases in the cost of accessing space as well as international partnerships to ensure that all people can benefit from space-based infrastructure.