The Space Systems Laboratory (SSL) is in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA.

[4] A previous Space Systems Laboratory (Maryland) was founded at MIT in 1976, by faculty members Renee Miller and J.W.

[7] The laboratory has a practice of Conceive-Design-Implement-Operate (CDIO), working to provide students hands-on learning as a part of their coursework.

Faculty members include: While the students go off to a wide variety of careers, many SSL graduates have gone to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

[37] A 2014 paper from PhD candidate Sydney Do and several additional SSL graduate students received world-wide attention for its assessment that astronauts wouldn't be able to survive in the Mars One project's design more than a few couple of the months.