Bremen, Germany will soon play host to this year's IAC, a gathering that sees about 4,000 space actors from over 60 nations come together to discuss all things space-related.
Each year the IAC changes country, theme, and local organiser, enabling everyone to learn more about and be part of the world space network. Bremen – Germany's main space city and one of Europe's major space centres – offers an exceptionally fruitful environment for assembling the global space community.
One of the highlights of the first day's activities (1 October 2018, from 18:15 – 19:30) is the Host Plenary moderated by Marc Avila, Director of the Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM), University of Bremen, who will tackle a question on the back of everybody's mind: How to live and work on ISS, Moon and Mars?
Today’s visions of sending astronauts to Moon and Mars do not seem to be scheduled for a far distant future anymore. It is not the question of whether, but when we will be ready to go. ZARM (Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity) wants to focus the Host Plenary on research under space conditions and the practical requirements for working and living in space. We aim to show how the foundations for future extraterrestrial astronautic missions are being laid out.
The Host Plenary guests, Takuya Onishi, Astronaut, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Hanns-Christian Gunga, Head of Work Group, Center for Space Medicine and Extreme Environments, and Christiane Heinicke, Team Lead – Moon and Mars Base Analog (MAMBA), Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM), University of Bremen, will give short presentations (TED talk style) on their scientific work and their personal experience focusing on the following questions:
- Why is research under space conditions so important?
- What are the demands of an ideal workplace on ISS, Moon or Mars?
- How does the living and working environment influence the team dynamics?
- What are the technical and architectural specifications for a habitat that allows human beings to physically and psychologically cope with extreme living conditions?
- What are the expected benefits of astronautic missions to Moon or Mars?
ROOM – The Space Journal is a media sponsor of IAC 2018 and will have representatives at the event, so please come and find us on our stand!
For more information on the IAC, please look here: https://www.iac2018.org/
