An interdisciplinary approach to shaping our space future

Artist’s rendering of settlements on the Moon. Credits: Taylor Herring/Samsung via Futurism.com

A melding of multiple disciplines is required for creating a positive human space future that will enable space settlement. In addition to aerospace engineering, architecture and the traditional physical sciences we associate with space exploration, the fields of sociology, philosophy, art, space law and may others will be needed. A method for integrating these fields and coordinating them across the private sector, universities and government has been developed in The Interplanetary Initiative, a pan-university venture created at Arizona State University. The innovative research model is described in a paper in the September 2020 issue of New Space. The program turns students into team leaders and collaborators, equipping them with the skills and knowledge to solve problems anticipated to be encountered as humans expand out into the solar system.