Engineering students at Purdue University will soon benefit from the school’s new Extraterrestrial Habitat Engineering initiative. This is a program that will involve students in leading-edge development of new technologies and systems that could eventually let humans inhabit the moon and other planets.

Funded by Purdue’s New Horizons Grant, a competitive award handed out by the university’s provost which aims to challenge senior faculty to create new areas of academic interest for the coming decades, the Extraterrestrial Habitat Engineering initiative includes the development of a research center along with academic programs beginning with a degree minor – with the objective of expanding program offerings in the future.

Jay Melosh, a professor of earth, atmospheric and planetary Sciences, is one of the four principal investigators in the project who received the New Horizons Grant. He says the professors and students participating in the project face formidable challenges when trying to create livable habitats for humans in space.

"Beyond the protection of Earth’s atmosphere, space explorers and colonists face unprecedented difficulties stemming from the lack of resources, food, air pressure and oxygen, wild temperature fluctuations, hazards such as meteoroid impacts, intense particle radiation, and life in close quarters in very hostile environments," Melosh explained. "Confronting these challenges to provide resilient and sustainable living conditions in space will require aggressive applications of engineering, science and social sciences."

Melosh is joined on the project by three other principal investigators: professors of engineering, Shirley Dyke, Julio Ramirez and Antonio Bobet. Bobet adds that the program builds on the school’s existing research strengths, and presents an opportunity for collaboration between faculty, students and staff at Purdue.

"We envision our Extraterrestrial Habitat Engineering initiative as a catalyst to ignite the inner passion for exploration so prevalent here at Purdue; and to create a sound, vibrant network of researchers and students, all committed to take humanity to the next grand adventure," Bobet said. "This subject is contagious, and we see it spreading quickly outside of academia and beyond the borders of the United States. This effort, led by Purdue, will engage our faculty, students and staff, and it will continue Purdue's legacy of leadership in science, engineering and space exploration."

According to vice provost for faculty affairs, Peter Hollenbeck, the initiative will receive funding for two years, after which time the researchers will be asked to provide an account of their activities and a transition plan for new research areas.

“The goal is that within five to seven years after the award, Purdue is likely to be recognized as an exemplary institution in the new area of scholarship,” Hollenbeck explained.

There will be an informational seminar describing the plans for the Extraterrestrial Habitat Engineering initiative taking place on January 27th, 2017. For more information, visit the Purdue University website.