In a new, comprehensive review paper led by Concordia researchers published in the journal Progress in Aerospace Science, the authors break down the many very serious challenges of lunar-based manufacturing and construction essential for establishing a sustainable, long-term lunar presence. But they also provide solutions that can overcome them.

“A crucial step is to be able to manufacture whatever is needed on site,” says Mohammad Azami, a PhD candidate at Concordia University’s Aerospace Robotics Lab (CUARL). “We must establish the infrastructure needed to produce the essential tools, structures and systems  for habitation on the moon.”

The researchers say that this will require close use of three critical technologies: 3D printing, robotics and artificial intelligence (AI).

It’s difficult to know what birds ‘think’ when they fly, but scientists in Australia and Canada are getting some remarkable new insights by looking inside birds' heads.

Evolutional biologists at Flinders University in South Australia and neuroscience researchers at the University of Lethbridge in Canada have teamed up to explore a new approach to recreating the brain structure of extinct and living birds by making digital ‘endocasts’ from the area inside a bird skeleton’s empty cranial space.