Planning the Human Future Beyond Earth with the Prison Population: The Life Beyond Project

Prisons are in some significant respects similar to planetary stations. Their occupants live within a social environment that is confined, takes on its own culture with a strong interdependence and camaraderie between individuals, and contains within it huge latent talents in art, science, engineering, and other disciplines. Recognizing this potential, the Life Beyond project involves the prison population in designing settlements for the Moon and Mars. Involving ∼160 prisoners in Scotland, the project has led to two published books presenting strategies for the settlement of the Moon and Mars. Building on this, a set of course materials was devised for any prisoner anywhere to contribute ideas and plans for the human exploration and settlement of space. Here, we describe this project, the methods used, and the results. In addition to improving educational opportunities in prisons through space science and elements of astrobiology, the project demonstrates the potential for prisoners to contribute to space settlement by applying their experience of the prison space analog environment.