Events

Abstract: The NASA Artemis program to send humans to the moon and onto Mars provides an important impetus to develop technologies and methods to enable humans to live and work in deep space for long periods of time. More recently, the “Robotics and Automation on Earth and in Space” Roadmap published by the Australian Space Agency identifies the need to develop Foundational Services. Foundational Services are operational services that support exploration missions to build towards (and eventually maintain) a sustained off-Earth presence, that includes civil infrastructure such as buildings and roads. This presentation will provide an overview of (i) the off-earth (extra-terrestrial) construction discipline, (ii) research activities at the University of Adelaide (UoA) focussed on establishing a permanent settlement on the moon, (iii) Andy Thomas Centre for Space Resources (https://set.adelaide.edu.au/atcsr/), named after  Australia’s first NASA astronaut, that is underpinning research activities at UoA, and (iv) a specialist laboratory for simulating off-earth environments referred to as EXTERRES (Extra-Terrestrial Environment Simulation Laboratory).

Bio: Scott Smith is Professor of Structural Engineering, and Deputy Dean International for the Faculty of Sciences, Engineering and Technology at The University of Adelaide. He holds degrees in engineering, business, and education via BE (Civil, 1994) and PhD (Structural Engineering, 1999) from the University of New South Wales, Australia; MBA and DIC (2018, Imperial College London, UK); Graduate Certificate in Higher Education Teaching and Learning (2005, University of Technology Sydney, Australia). His research interests include (i) materials, structures and construction practices for off-earth (extra-terrestrial) applications; and (ii) application of fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites to the built environment. He has published over 220 peer-reviewed journal and conference papers, and he is a Fellow of several professional institutions such as Engineers Australia, American Society of Civil Engineers and the American Concrete Institute. He is the Lead of the Lunar Construction Group in the Andy Thomas Centre for Space Resources located at the University of Adelaide. He is also Immediate Past President of the International Institute for FRP in Construction (IIFC), and Founding President of the Australian Society for Off-Earth Construction (ASOC). Further details about Professor Smith and his research activities can be found at https://researchers.adelaide.edu.au/profile/scott.smith.