Inside Time: From cell to outer space

Prisoners are being asked to design moon bases and consider life in outer space, in a unique research project.

The Life Beyond project is the idea of Professor Charles Cockell. He realised there were similarities between life in a cell and in an enclosed environment like a space station – and decided to consult prisoners on human settlement in space.

He gave talks at four prisons in Scotland, and around 160 prisoners at Glenochil and Edinburgh were involved in the publication of two books published by the British Interplanetary Society: Life Beyond: From Prison to Mars, published in 2018, and Life Beyond 2: From Prison to the Moon, published in 2020.

Now, the project is being extended across the UK with materials being made available by Coracle Inside, the prison laptop provider which has around 1,000 devices in use at 50 jails in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Read the feature on Inside Time here.