Helena Correia Mendonça (Principal Consultant) contributes to the WhatNext.LAw Research Centre with an insight on the cities of the future, within the exploration of potential permanent human settlement in outer space, the legal and regulatory challenges of space colonisation and of smart cities in space.

“Commercialisation and privatisation of outer space, together with technology advances, are playing a central role in the revival of human use of space, in what has been called the “New Space” – the convergence of new technologies with space activities, leading to constellations of small satellites mainly in low-Earth orbit (LEO) and of high-altitude platforms (HAPS), reusable launchers, and increasing use of space technologies and data in downstream innovative offers and in the Internet of Things (IoT).”