'Time to expand civil engineering into space'

Lee Tai-sik

By Park Jin-hai

Lee Tai-sik, 61, president of the Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology (KICT), is a scientist with many interests.

He said that now is the time to expand the territory of civil engineering into space.

“When we talk about a space development project, you may well think of rockets or satellite. But, space is another place that human can pioneer and live. Thus, having a technology to build space stations will gain more importance in the future,” Lee said in an interview with The Korea Times.

He has been conducting a joint research with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the U.S. He also has been developing space drilling robot and waterless concrete, for seven years.

“When I first mentioned the co-project with NASA, people laughed at the idea. But, I made up my mind to study the civil engineering that can work in the most extreme environment _ space. At first it was hard even to get an enough fund from government, but now many people support the study,” he added.

The space, with zero gravity and lack of water, needs special equipment to construct stations.

To construct a building on space, the drilling technology should be developed to make little dust since it takes months for dust to settle in space. And the drilling robot should be light but rigid to anchor on the moon, according to him.

He said that application of his study is not limited to space.

“I have long been studying developing waterless concrete. It can be used in the space, but also applicable to as much barren places like the polar regions where getting water and earth to make concrete is as much difficult.”

Lee is currently in Paris to participate in a two-day working committee for the OECD Space Forum between Oct. 23 and 24, introducing Korean space technologies to its member countries as well as having our voices reflected onto the space policy-making.

During her campaigning in the lead-up to the December 2012 presidential election, President Park Geun-hye pledged to make a lunar probe by 2020.

“Since NASA has four travels scheduled to go to the moon in 2017, 2018, 2020 and 2021, I believe the day when our space technologies will be used on the moon will be near,” he said.

The forum has been established in 2006 to boost the space-related business which is using space technologies to resolve the economic issues that all the human beings are facing.

Currently, eight counties including the U.S., France, the U.K. and the European Union take part in the working committee.

Lee, an undergraduate of Seoul National University, majoring civil engineering, holds master’s and doctorate degrees in construction management at Wisconsin State University. Since 1994, he has served as a professor at Hanyang University until he was appointed as the chief of the KICT.