Date: Saturday 29th November 2025 from 10am to 5pm – includes a light lunch
Venue: In person at BIS HQ, 27-29 South Lambeth Road, London SW8 1SZ or online via Zoom
The BIS 5th Beyond the Moon Symposium is an annual event organised by the British Interplanetary Society that examines the most critical challenges and opportunities facing humanity as it seeks to expand beyond lunar bases and into the wider solar system.
Symposium Purpose
The symposium serves as a platform for BIS members, scientists, engineers, policymakers, and thought leaders to identify and propose solutions for barriers to human presence throughout the solar system. It focuses on both technical and societal issues involved in moving beyond the Moon, such as radiation protection, sustainable habitats, advanced propulsion, and governance.
The goals of the symposium include:
- Tackle fundamental challenges for sustaining human life off-world and enabling solar system exploration;
- Build a community of experts and participants intent on shaping policy, technology, and long-term strategies for solar system settlement; and
- Inspire and involve the next generation of space professionals through parallel workshops and networking opportunities.
The symposium is designed to actively anticipate and drive discussion on the steps humanity must take after lunar settlement, positioning the BIS at the forefront of advocacy and planning for interplanetary civilisation.
Provisional Programme.
Morning session; BIS projects in space development. Chair Richard Soilleux
10.00 Introduction. Richard Soilleux. Role of BIS, Moon as Springboard. Recap Project SPACE and Orbital Settlement.
10.10. Island Zero. Jerry Stone.
10.35. Avalon. Richard Soilleux
11.00 Astrochemical engineering; Mars ISRU as case study with focus on H2O. Vasileios Inglezakis.
11.25 Coffee / tea
11.50 Lunar mining and materials processing. Michel Lamontagne (Zoom)
12.15 Building Avalons in a jig-factory and how much will it cost? Richard Soilleux
12.40 Air Breathing Nuclear SSTOs: Sourcing Much Needed H,C,N for Future Space Colonisation Efforts. Philip Baldock.
13.05 Lunch
Afternoon session; The impact of AI. Chair Gerry Webb.
14.05 AI as an enabler for Space settlement. Sylvester Kaczmarek (Zoom)
14.30 Rewilding Natural Intelligence: The Case for Not Introducing AI into Space. Soumya Banerjee (Zoom)
14.55 Artificial intelligences (AIs) could potentially serve as the catalyst for the first contact between our society and an alien one. Giorgio Gaviraghi (Zoom)
15.20 Tea
Late afternoon session; Humans in space.
15.40 A Multi-Agent AI Governance System for Behavioural Health (MAGSBH) Model for Space Exploration. Dame Commander Dr Susan Jewell. (Zoom).
The influence of art on the space experience.
16.05 Reimagining Space: Speculative Infrastructures for an Exponential Era. Dr Adam Kaasa
16.30 Panel discussion. Chair, Gerry Webb.
17.00 End, Bar open.
18.30 Finish