NASA Tech Talks: Optimizing Sensorimotor Performance During Space Exploration

Name: NASA Tech Talks: Optimizing Sensorimotor Performance During Space Exploration
Start: 2026-07-23T18:00:00-05:00
End: 2026-07-23T19:00:00-05:00
Location: Ion

The event has passed

Category: Aerospace, Founders & Startups, General Community

Free

Past Event

WHEN

Thursday

July 23, 2026

6:00 pm - 7:00 pm CDT

WHERE

Ion

4201 Main Street
Houston, TX 77002 + Google Map

what

We want HOU! Join us to discover NASA’s toughest tech challenges—and apply your skills and expertise to solve them.

Living in an altered gravity environment, such as microgravity or the lunar surface, drives adaptative changes in how the brain utilizes sensory information to maintain spatial awareness and control of movement. Dr. Scott Wood will describe how these challenges may impact critical mission tasks astronauts are required to complete, and some of the technology that has been developed to optimize their performance while mitigating these sensorimotor risks. The development of assessment and interventional tools has benefitted from clinical developments to support patient populations. The need for more autonomous operations during exploration missions will also motivate future opportunities for technology sharing with terrestrial medicine.

Please join us after the talk for drinks and networking at Second Draught!

About the Speakers

Scott Wood is a neuroscientist for NASA’s Human Health and Performance Directorate at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX. He has been the Co-Lead for the Crew Health Countermeasures portfolio for the Mars Campaign Office charged with developing technologies and countermeasures for exploration missions. He is also the Sensorimotor Discipline Lead for the Health and Countermeasures Element with the Human Research Program (HRP). As part of the Neuroscience Laboratory, he has participated in numerous flight studies and supports neurological functional tests used for medical assessments. Dr. Wood began his research career at NASA while completing his doctorate at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX. In addition to his spaceflight research, he has also conducted research in clinical and military aerospace laboratories.

Montgomery B. Goforth has more than 40 years of experience as both Engineer and Manager in a variety of highly technical space and defense-related efforts. After working for a small defense contractor specializing in anti-submarine warfare, he joined NASA’s Johnson Space Center in 1990. He has held leadership positions in multiple JSC Directorates and Program Offices. In his previous role as Assistant Director of the JSC Engineering Directorate, he established a framework to better focus Engineering’s efforts towards Human Spaceflight technology and systems development consistent with JSC and Agency goals for exploration. Mr. Goforth is now serving as Acting Director of the Business Development & Technology Integration Office at JSC, and as the JSC Chief Technologist. In these capacities he will be helping to expand the Houston Aerospace Community through the identification of opportunities to develop space/terrestrial technologies of interest to JSC and Human Space Exploration. Mr. Goforth was born in East Texas, raised in Southern California and Arizona, and graduated from Rice University (BSME 1982, MSME 1987).

About NASA Tech Talks

In these presentations, occurring the fourth Thursdays of the month, Mr. Montgomery Goforth and other aerospace subject matter experts will discuss the technology development challenges faced by NASA’s Johnson Space Center and the surrounding Aerospace community in our ongoing efforts as the hub of human spaceflight. Presentations will focus on the ways in which these challenges, and the associated opportunities, can be leveraged by Houston’s innovation community. We will continue to identify potential space/terrestrial technologies of interest to Human Spaceflight. Past NASA Tech Talks have included topics such as:

From Space to Startup: Leveraging NASA Technology and Innovation to Propel Your Growing Enterprise
Disruptive Filter Technology for Spacecraft Water Treatment: The New Promise of Graphene
Lunar dust capture using novel multiplexed inertial filter
Lunar Passive Fuel Cell Technologies:
Microbes in Space

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NASA Tech Talks: Optimizing Sensorimotor Performance During Space Exploration

Free

WHEN

Thursday

WHERE

what

CONTACT

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Event Calendar

NASA Tech Talks: Optimizing Sensorimotor Performance During Space Exploration

Free

WHEN

Thursday

WHERE

what

CONTACT

Organizer

Organizer Website

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