programme
16th ESSCA Space Policy Workshop
Towards a Moon Village? – Constructing Sustainable Buildings and Society on Earth and in Space
Date: Monday 18 – Tuesday 19 March 2024
Conveners: Space Policy Research Group: T. Hoerber, ESSCA – School of Management – EU*Asia Institute / Schader Stiftung Darmstadt / Institute for Housing and Environment (IWU) Darmstadt
Venue: Schader-Forum, Goethestraße 2, 64285 Darmstadt, Germany & Online via Zoom (click here to connect)
The workshop will also include a roundtable at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC).
Buildings are a key cause of climate change through their energy and emissions impact and must therefore be part of the solution. At the same time, buildings must satisfy increasing demands emerging from the integration of smart technologies, climate change adaptation all the way to the arguably extreme demands of constructing and maintaining buildings in non-terrestrial environments. This workshop will bring together two communities and strands of research and practice, which have both been working on the sustainability of buildings, both on Earth, but also with a view to constructing buildings in other environments. With a view to mutual learning and exchange, it focuses on technologies as well as policies and solutions emerging from the European level, but also from the EU Member states and sub-national centers of governance. The workshop builds on the achievements of the standing research group on European space policy and on the UACES Research Network ‘The Role of Europe in Global Challenges: Climate Change and Sustainable Development’.
The conference will focus on the following topics and questions:
- Buildings, Space and Sustainability
- Sustainable construction technologies for Earth and space
- Building sustainable societal concepts on Earth and for space
- European Space Policies in general
- European sustainability and buildings policies in general
- How to handle limited resources (compared to Earth), for example water or water circulation
- Ways to recycle or re-use (considering construction waste and embodied energy in the construction process)
- Dealing with space junk compared to rubble on Earth
- The role of policy requirements and economic incentives (e.g., waste disposal in space)
- Who is able to build in space? (considering wealth, imperialism, mining rights on the moon…)
- More fundamentally: Should we even consider constructing in outer space?
Click here to download the programme
Click here to download the call for papers (.pdf)
