Overview

Human spaceflight remains one of the most visible and costly forms of space activity. In an era shaped by advanced robotics, artificial intelligence, and growing challenges on Earth, a fundamental question remains: Why should humans still go to space?

This workshop challenges participants to confront that question head-on.

Guiding Questions

• If robots could do almost everything better than us, why do we still send humans to space?
• What do humans contribute that machines cannot?
• What kinds of relationships are built when people depend on each other in extreme environments?
• What stories do human journeys into space tell about us as a species?
• What changes when a human, not a machine, is the one experiencing something unknown?
• What happens to the human body and mind in extreme environments we cannot fully simulate on Earth?
• Why might countries choose to collaborate in space, even while competing on Earth?
• If robots expand our reach, what do humans expand?

Who do we want & What to expect?

We want people from diverse backgrounds: engineering, physics, economics, law, policy, philosophy, and beyond- to critically explore this question. Space exploration doesn’t succeed in silos: without alignment between disciplines, even the best ideas fall short!

Rather than working from predefined angles, discussions will evolve as participants shape the key themes themselves. Working in small groups alongside experts, delegates will test their assumptions, confront opposing views, and build arguments that can convince others why human spaceflight still matters today and in a future where sustained human presence in orbit and around the Moon may be a reality (2060).

The process is: think, debate, confront, and ultimately convince others.

Overview

As human spaceflight moves from short missions to months and years in orbit, on the Moon, and beyond, spacecraft and habitats can no longer be treated as just “vehicles”; they become homes, workplaces, and public spaces. The way we design these environments will shape not only safety and performance, but also mental health, identity, culture, and who can meaningfully participate in space.

This workshop invites participants to re‑imagine human spaceflight environments from the inside out. How do we design spacecraft, stations, and surface habitats that support well‑being, community, and dignity, not just survival? What does it mean to make space inclusive and accessible when bodies, minds, and needs are so diverse, and when people may live off‑Earth for years at a time?

Guiding Questions

• What makes a space habitat feel livable rather than just survivable (in terms of light, sound, layout, colour, privacy, social spaces, and connection to Earth)?
• How do we design for mental health and behavioural health from day one, instead of treating them as “crew selection” problems to fix later?
• What would an inclusive and accessible space habitat look like for people with different bodies, abilities, ages, cultures, and neurotypes?
• How can architecture, interior design, XR/virtual windows, and interaction design help humans maintain a sense of “place,” time, and normality in extreme, isolated environments?
• Who gets to influence the design of future habitats? Only engineers and agencies, or also artists, psychologists, people with disabilities, commercial passengers, and future long‑term residents?

Who do we want & What to expect?

Backgrounds including but not limited to: engineers and architects, human factors and UX designers, psychologists and physicians, artists, experts in accessibility and inclusion, and anyone with lived experience of constrained or marginalised environments.

Rather than treating “human factors” as a checklist, this working group will let participants co‑create guiding principles and speculative concepts for human‑centred habitats. Working in diverse teams, delegates will map the human needs that future environments must meet, confront tensions between safety, efficiency, and comfort, and sketch design ideas or “patterns” that could make human life in space healthier, more inclusive, and more humane.

Overview

From elite government corps to private companies, the gateway to space is controlled by a complex mix of public authority, private ambition, and economic power. But astronaut selection isn’t just about skill or safety: it’s shaped by tradition, wealth, nationality, and unspoken norms about who “belongs” among the stars. As commercial flights rise and global inequalities persist, access to space in the next decades could become either more open or more exclusive than ever. Rethinking who flies, why, and under whose authority isn’t just a technical question, it’s a test of fairness, representation, and our collective vision of humanity beyond Earth. 

This working group will explore these topics reflecting on how human spaceflight will be in 2060, an epoch that will be strongly affected by the choices we make today, from the ethics of space travel to the power dynamics that will define who gets to fly. Participants will critically examine the systems, values, and power structures that determine who flies today, and they will  imagine what fairer, more inclusive models could look like.

Guiding questions

• Who gets to decide who goes to space, and how transparent and accountable are those decisions?
• What defines who is “fit” to go to space, and which criteria are truly necessary versus inherited from tradition or bias?
• How do public institutions and private companies differ in determining access to space, and who should ultimately hold that power?
• To what extent is access to space becoming dependent on wealth, and how might commercialization reshape who can participate?
• Who gets to represent humanity in space today, and which regions or communities remain excluded?
• What barriers continue to limit participation from underrepresented groups, and how do social norms influence who is seen as “belonging” in space?
• Should diversity, inclusion, and global representation be explicit goals in astronaut selection, and how could they be meaningfully implemented?
• What would a fair and inclusive system for deciding who goes to space look like in 2060, and how can we get there?

Who do we want & What to expect?

We welcome participants from any background: engineering, policy, law, economics, social sciences, ethics, and beyond. Questions of access to space are not purely technical, they are political, social, and deeply human. Without diverse perspectives, the future of human spaceflight risks reflecting only a narrow slice of humanity.

This working group will not assume a “correct” model. Instead, participants will work in interdisciplinary small teams to unpack existing systems, challenge assumptions, and confront tensions between merit, safety, fairness, and representation. Through debate and experts’ guidance, delegates will explore alternative frameworks for deciding who gets to go to space. The goal is not only to critique the present, but to propose more transparent, inclusive, and just approaches to human spaceflight access, while challenging the delegates’ idea of fairness.

Overview

By the 2060s, today’s Moon‑to‑Mars plans and commercial ambitions suggest humans could be living and working in more places than ever before: crewed stations in Earth orbit, long‑duration outposts around and on the Moon, and possibly the first sustained missions to Mars. But these futures are not predetermined. What kind of human presence do we actually want in the Solar System by then: rotating research crews, commercial hubs, early settlements or something in between?

Participants will explore different “trajectories” for human spaceflight (science‑driven, industry‑driven, Earth‑safety‑driven, or human‑settlement‑driven?) and imagine what each one leads to by 2060. Rather than assuming one inevitable future, WG4 challenges delegates to map futures, make trade‑offs explicit, and decide which paths they believe are worth pursuing.

Guiding Questions

• If you jump forward to the 2060s, what does “human spaceflight” look like on a normal day? Where are humans, what are they doing, and who are they doing it for?
• Which places in the Solar System do you think should host a sustained human presence by the 2060s (for example: low Earth orbit, cislunar space, the lunar surface, Mars, free‑space habitats), and why those locations instead of others?
• In that future, are most humans in space still short‑term visitors on missions, or are some people starting to live and build multi‑year lives off‑Earth? What changes when you design for one pattern versus the other?
• From a technical point of view, what are the biggest constraints on expanding human presence by the 2060s (for example: life support, radiation, propulsion, launch costs, in‑situ resources, human health), and how do those constraints shape which futures are realistic?
• From a societal point of view, what are the biggest constraints (for example: funding, public support, international cooperation, commercial priorities, regulation), and how might they push human spaceflight in some directions and not others?
• How do you imagine humans and robots working together in the 2060s: where is it still essential to have people physically present, and where might humans mostly supervise or collaborate with automated systems from a distance?
• What does a “responsible” level of human activity look like on the Moon or Mars in the 2060s in terms of how much we build, what we extract, and how we treat local environments and heritage sites?
• Who benefits most from the human‑spaceflight futures you are imagining (countries, companies, specific communities, humanity as a whole), and who might be left out or carry most of the risks?
• Looking back from the 2060s, what early choices in the 2030s – 2050s would you expect people to say were turning points that enabled good outcomes, or mistakes that locked us into problematic paths?