The New Space Economy Forum and "Product and Service Design"
On the afternoon of November 26, 2023, the "New Space Economy Forum: Moving to Mars 2033" jointly organized by the Department of Information Art and Design of the School of Fine Arts at Tsinghua University and the Tsinghua University Art and Technology Innovation Base was successfully held in the A278 auditorium of the Li Zhaoji Building at Tsinghua University. This forum is one of the characteristic activities of Tsinghua Maker Day, which includes the presentation of the results of the "Product and Service Design" course at the Academy of Fine Arts and the expert roundtable forum segment. Multiple industry experts and researchers from the field of space exploration have jointly explored cutting-edge issues related to Martian immigration and space economy through a new space narrative program that integrates art and science. This forum has established an academic and industrial exchange platform, attracting insightful experts and scholars from various fields to intersect in the field of space exploration, and presenting a high-dimensional dialogue about the future of space.
The space domain industry experts invited for this forum include Guo Rong, Deputy Director of the Beijing Institute of Space Science and Technology Information, Wang Yi, Astronaut Instructor and Simulated Astronaut at the China Astronaut Center, Cai Yun, Partner and CEO of Future Space, and Cao Dezhi, Co Founder and COO of Xingce Future Technology. In the autumn semester of 2023, the main lecturer of the "Product and Service Design" course, Fu Zhiyong from the Information Art Design Department, the initiator of the New Space Narrative Program, doctoral student Zhu Lin, the course assistant, doctoral student Zhang Jin, 14 graduate students who selected the course, and 12 off campus experts who served as course mentors attended together.
At the beginning of the forum, Fu Zhiyong delivered a welcome speech and introduced the course positioning and forum content. Subsequently, Zhu Lin, the initiator of the New Space Narrative Program, gave an in-depth introduction to the purpose and vision of the New Space Narrative Program.
The "New Space Narrative" program was initiated by Zhu Lin, a doctoral student from the School of Fine Arts at Tsinghua University, and her mentor Fu Zhiyong in 2021. The program aims to guide interdisciplinary teams to build a vision for space life, gather public imagination through design tools, empower innovation in space vision, and cultivate a new generation of designers for the future of space. The theoretical foundation of this plan is rooted in the "Future Cone" model, which provides a conceptual framework for exploring the diverse future of space design by outlining potential future scenarios. The New Space Narrative Program draws on the narrative method of design fiction in methodology, organically combining science and technology, design methods, and public imagination. By constructing a space life corpus and developing space future vision design tools, it opens up new paths for design education and interdisciplinary research in the new space era. As an application practice in the field of future design, this program has tested and iterated a series of design thinking tools that stimulate imagination, conceptualization, and collaboration through multiple graduate courses, Tsinghua International Summer School, and design workshops. At the same time, by holding public exhibitions and experiential activities, create a dialogue space for public participation and co innovation in space narratives. In addition, through open laboratories and pilot projects, cooperation with industries and institutions is promoted, providing a practical and incubation platform for space innovation.
In the achievement reporting section of this forum, four innovative design projects for the graduate course of Product and Service Design were presented, including Mars Driving (Du Yujie, Li Jianwen, Pan Zexiong), Mars Intelligent Module (Lai Xiaotong, Guo Wei, Liu Ke, Sun Yuting), Mars Communication (Kang Aiying, Huang Yalin, Li Ya), and Mars Express (Xie Weipeng, Hu Xinyang, Xiong Ruilin, Wang Xia), The experts on site gave high praise and professional advice.
The graduate course "Product and Service Design" in the autumn semester of 2023 has received active attention from interdisciplinary students, The design theme of this semester is "2033 Mars Travel". The course carries out teaching in the form of challenging teaching and project-based learning through lectures, seminars, workshops, exhibitions and other forms. A total of 12 off campus experts from aerospace, transportation, education and Internet enterprises were invited to Tsinghua classroom to share their professional knowledge and industry insights for students, and guide the graduate team's output. This forum also provides an open platform for graduate students to showcase their course assignments through presentations, roadshows, and works.
After four exciting roadshows, the important segment of this conference is the roundtable on "How New Space Narrative Will Create the Future". Under the guidance of host Cui Xingjian, six guests participated in interactive communication.
At the roundtable meeting of the New Space Economy Forum, multiple space experts shared their insights and experiences. Fu Zhiyong introduced the importance of promoting space design teaching based on graduate courses for cultivating innovative talents, and emphasized the practical significance of space exploration academic projects through case studies. Zhu Lin shared the origin and development process of the "New Space Narrative" program, discussed the possibility of public participation in space design, and discussed its contribution to interdisciplinary cooperation. Guo Rong reviewed the journey of joining the aerospace system and analyzed China's unique position in the field of global space innovation. As an astronaut instructor, Wang Yi shared his professional experience and explored the possibility of ordinary people becoming astronauts. Cai Yun discussed the feeling of entering the aerospace field and outlined the keywords and trends in the commercial aerospace field. Cao Dezhi shared his experience and challenges in entrepreneurship in the aerospace field, and summarized the development and future prospects of commercial aerospace from the perspective of entrepreneurs.
Finally, the forum guests put forward suggestions on how to better promote space exploration and innovation, including telling China's space story well in foreign exchanges, how ordinary people can realize the space dream, and achieving the integration of art and science in the space field. At the same time, experts also gave opinions and suggestions on exploring space to the Tsinghua students on site.
The final stage of the entire session was to award a letter of gratitude to the off campus experts who participated in the course guidance, thanking each expert for their contributions to the course. Fu Zhiyong awarded certificates to each course supervisor and took photos together.
This forum has achieved a complete success, not only completing the presentation of course results, but also building an industry university research platform, promoting the continuous iteration of the teaching and research system, and enhancing the academic influence of the School of Fine Arts of Tsinghua University in the field of new space design education. The results of the forum will further form landing projects with partners in space innovation, space science popularization, and other fields, in order to generate more profound social influence and provide more possibilities and imaginative space for the innovation and development of China's space industry.