The theme: Space exploration: socio-cultural, geostrategic, economic, and environmental issues
Human activities in outer space have grown significantly in recent years. Our uses of space have become much more diverse—connectivity, spatial orientation, cybersecurity, and even space tourism have been added to scientific and military uses, driven by a variety of new players, particularly in the private sector.
The course explores the new socio-cultural, geostrategic, economic, and environmental issues raised by these uses, which will lead to questioning the imagination of space conquest. It is aimed at any student wishing to complement their scientific and technical training with cutting-edge multidisciplinary thinking from the humanities and social sciences, in dialogue with the natural and engineering sciences. The course is also aimed more generally at any student, regardless of their original discipline, who wishes to acquire the knowledge and resources to address the major, but often little-known and little-discussed, challenges raised by human space exploration.
Speakers will include Isabelle Sourbès-Verger (CNRS), Perig Pitrou (Collège de France), Victor Buchli (University College London), and Nina Klimburg-Witjes (University of Vienna).
Practitioners include Baptiste Voillequin (Director of Research and Development, Space & Environment, GIFAS – French Aerospace Industries Association) and Xavier Pasco (Director of the Foundation for Strategic Research – FRS).
