Research Tuesdays - Ready for liftoff

Humanity is racing into space, but are our systems keeping pace? By the end of this decade, we’re set to establish human outposts on the Moon, and Mars is on the horizon. Many legal, logistical, and ethical questions are fast-approaching—and largely unanswered.

How do we protect the lunar environment? Who sets the rules for disputes on the Moon? How do we optimise technology and infrastructure for planetary exploration? How can we design structures for living and working on Mars—if humans are meant to be there at all?

Our researchers are working to address these issues. Drawing on international law, sustainability frameworks, and engineering research, they’re rewriting future history.

Join us in October to forge a future in space that’s ethical, sustainable, and considered.

The presenters

Professor Melissa de Zwart is the Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space and Professor, Space Law and Governance, Andy Thomas Centre for Space Resources, at the University of Adelaide. Melissa is a prominent legal researcher, working in the areas of commercial and military uses of outer space. She has served as Deputy Director and Board Member of the Space Industry Association of Australia, as well as on the successful bid team for the 2025 International Astronautical Congress to be held in Sydney. Melissa is a Member of the International Institute of Space Law and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law.

Associate Professor John Culton is the Director of the Andy Thomas Centre for Space Resources and an Associate Professor within the School of Architecture and Civil Engineering. Before joining the University of Adelaide in 2019, he was a Colonel in the U.S. Air Force, having served as both a fixed and rotary wing special operations pilot and throughout multiple embassy postings as a senior U.S. diplomat. He is a member of several international space technical committees, serves as an associate editor of the New Space Journal, and is a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.