The topic was the best design for a manned lunar base, and in the small room at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology the discussion was heated. Building the base in space and landing the completed structure on the moon just won’t work, argued the transportation experts. “We’re talking about a quantum leap in technology here,” warned Bill Unger, a Canadian engineer. But such an approach would be cheaper than constructing the base on the moon and would help advance the technology, countered the architects. “Here is an idea that works,” insisted Madhu Thangavelu, an Indian space architect.
No, this wasn’t a NASA long-range planning session. Instead it was part of an improbable, ambitious, and unprecedented undertaking the International Space University. Conceived and organized by a pair of precocious graduate students, the ISU is an unusual sort of educational institution. For one thing, its 104 students flocked to MIT from 21 ...
