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Both government and private organizations are fast approaching the moment when humans will return to deep space. Unlike the Apollo Program, this return is intended to be permanent, seeing the establishment of long-term infrastructure and habitation facilities off-Earth.

Within NASA’s Artemis Program, these missions will first focus on the Moon before traveling onward to Mars. Due to the extremely harsh conditions at these locales, NASA’s first priorities include the construction of civil engineering works such as launch and landing pads, roads for overland transportation, berms for dust control, and the placement and construction of communication, habitation, and power generation facilities.

To accomplish this, industrial robots will be required to work with humans in the conduct of the civil engineering and construction activities. How might this be accomplished?

Our panel of experts considers the exciting challenges inherent in building a city off-Earth.

• Off-Earth Construction Panel
• Sam Ximenes | CEO/Architect, Astroport
• Prof Kiran Bhaganagar | Director NASA Center for Advanced Measurements in Extreme Environments
• Prof Scott Smith | Leader, ATCSR Lunar Construction Group
• Prof Anna Ma-Wyatt | Co-Director, International Research Lab CROSSING (Human-Robot Teaming)
• A/Prof Rini Akmeliawati | Robotic Control Systems Design, School of Mechanical Engineering
• Dr. Amit Srivastava | School of Architecture
• Joel Lisk | Space Law - Flinders University