Humans are once again going to be soon venturing beyond the orbit of Earth and the aspiration is to get humans to Mars. To achieve this aim – one that we have thought about, written and speculated about and pondered, presents myriad challenges and the need to find solutions to problems that we as yet haven’t considered. This is an area ripe for consideration by a wide-ranging, research-based university such as UCL. In this talk Andrew Edkins will set out the case for why a place such as UCL could and should offer to be a beacon of expertise in areas relating to off world living.
Biography: Andrew Edkins is the professor of the management of complex projects within the Bartlett, UCL’s faculty of the built environment. His background spans both academe and industry, having been involved in the construction sector and then in the delivery of custodial services. In 2018 he was asked to set up the Bartlett Real Estate Institute to challenge the orthodox academic consideration of ‘real estate’ and this coincided with ESA’s interest in creating a ‘moon village’. ESA’s use of this phrase led to a series of conversations resulting in him setting up the UCL Off World Living Institute within the UCL Space Domain and appreciating both the scale and diversity of the challenge that off world living poses.
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Photo (c) NASA
