THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE UNIVERSITY (ISU)

Abstract

The International Space University (ISU) was created in 1986 with a cooperative vision on space activities, compared to the previous, competitive oriented space era. It started of with a Summer School Program and was housed since 2002 in its new campus in Strasbourg, France, housing the permanent master level programs. In all its programs ISU follows the same pedagogical principle, bringing an international group of students together and create this way an intercultural approach towards space activities. Moreover, all aspects of space are covered, as well scientific as technical ones, over business oriented to legal and even humanities related ones. This principle has been consequently baptized the approximately 2006 present alumni can thus be found in all aspects of space activities, both in agencies and governmental organisations, as well in industrial and entrepreneurial space fields. With the growing interest in space exploration, astronomy and planetary sciences are playing an increasingly important role in its curriculum, as will be further described in this chapter.