Nowadays, with the emergence of new space technology, to stay competitive in the space industry, students need to develop an expertise and knowledge in the fields of business and law. This interdisciplinary course will combine technical with law and business aspects of satellite communication systems. Students will submerge themselves into an interdisciplinary work environment and collaborate with other students from either a law or technical background. They will work together to solve problems in teams, which is also an asset from the societal point of view.

For the technically educated students, the courses are eye-opening in presenting the regulatory and business aspects of space activities. For the law students, the exchange with the technically trained students is enriching as they will cooperate with technical experts in the practice and must at least understand the problems which they are expected to solve. For both groups, the business aspect of satellite communications systems will be new and enlarge their competences. The interdisciplinarity of the course is a simulation of situations in a real employment world.

Our goal is to build the bridges between the different fields to reach a common goal and break the silos of traditional work environments.

In a fast-growing space environment, there is a crucial need to cross-combine skills and expertise to speed up space project development, be it in terms of technical/technological, business or legal acumen. Time has come to interact and work in a collaborative and comprehensive way and from the outset between all key stakeholders.

This course aims at providing to the participants, whatever their educational or cultural background, not only a "common language" but also an efficient working culture combining technical, legal and business dimensions, enabling them to work more efficiently on the design and development of space-related projects, with a shared mindset.

A key feature of the course is the blend of students of different backgrounds, combined with eye-opening course material; with this configuration, interdisciplinarity is total. The subjects treated will focus on giving the students the opportunity to engage in both the entrepreneurial challenges associated with innovation and start-up marketing; as well as the legal and business issues associated with space economy and intellectual property.

The main objective of the course is to allow students to acquire knowledge about space resources and mining and create opportunities to gain practical experiences which will help students understand different aspect of space resource exploration against the background of Earth resource exploration.

Lectures will introduce students to different aspects of space exploration, such as geology, sustainable development, and robotics. Students will learn about the geology of various terrestrial bodies and challenges of space exploration. They will also learn about preparing and testing robots used in space missions.

To allow students to see the connections between space geology and space resource exploration and Earth geology and traditional mining, students will take part in educational field trips. The educational trip to the Wieliczka Salt Mine (a UNESCO World Heritage site) is a unique opportunity to see first-hand how the mining industry looked like centuries ago and what it meant to be a miner.

The educational trip to the Racławka Valley and Dubie dolomite mine will help students understand the geological history of planet Earth and learn about different types of rocks and how they were formed first hand.

The school will also be an opportunity to practice communication and collaboration skills in multi-national teams, improve foreign language skills, and brainstorm and reflect on the hard and soft skills of entry-level employees in the space sector. Students will be encouraged to share and reflect on their experiences of inter-cultural communication and experiences of Krakow and places they will have an opportunity to visit. Krakow the former capital of Poland offers unique opportunities to observe and experience shared European history and traditions in the form of architecture, culture and cuisine.

The UNIVERSEH course "Mankind and the Moon. Mining 300 years of Space Exploration" explores the cultural history of space travel and more generally the moon as a cultural reference point in Early Modern, Modern and Contemporary History. Students will explore this topic based on digitised Early Modern Encyclopedias as well as Modern and Contemporary newspaper collections. Alongside lectures on the topic, student-led teams will design small-scale research projects and employ fundamental techniques for the semantic enrichment and data-driven exploration of their sources. In addition, students will explore novel techniques for content presentation in virtual worlds in collaboration with students of the BA Animation Studies at the University of Luxembourg.

The proposed seminar pursues a decidedly interdisciplinary approach, fostering collaboration across various fields to enable students to employ digital methods for the study and critical analysis of the multifaceted discourses of space exploration.

The seminar is structured into three main blocks, beginning with an introductory phase in Düsseldorf, where students receive theoretical grounding and hands-on training in using early modern encyclopaedias and digitised newspapers as historical sources. This phase emphasises the formation of interdisciplinary teams, leveraging complementary language skills to facilitate diverse research perspectives.

The second block consists of hybrid meetings featuring lectures on premodern voyages to the moon, space travel in the modern era, and digital humanities research methods. These sessions are complemented by practical training in digital tools such as Voyant Tools and the Impresso web app, enhancing students' skills in text analysis and digital research methodologies.

In the concluding block held in Luxembourg, students will finalise and present their projects in a virtual world based on the Unreal game engine, incorporating insights from lectures, digital humanities tools, and interdisciplinary collaboration. The seminar aims to equip students with a critical understanding of the cultural history of the moon and space travel, bolstered by project management skills including science communication, writing, and text analysis.

Overall, "Mankind and the Moon. Mining 300 years of Space Exploration" not only offers a critical introduction to cultural and digital history but also contributes to the establishment of a continuous class format for critical space studies. This innovative seminar framework encourages students to continually apply a critical lens to their (inter-)disciplinary training, promoting a holistic understanding of the cultural significance of the moon and space travel throughout history.