Jan Dierckx

Papers

Total Citations

H-Index

About

Jan Dierckx is a pioneering researcher at the intersection of space architecture and autonomous construction, whose visionary work is laying the groundwork for humanity’s future on Mars. His primary research areas encompass extraterrestrial habitat design, additive manufacturing with in-situ resources, and multi-robot swarm construction systems. Dierckx’s most significant contribution is the development of a comprehensive concept for an autonomous additive construction process on Mars, which proposes using a coordinated swarm of robots to sinter local regolith into protective shields around inflatable modules. This work, detailed in his highly cited 2016 paper “Autonomous Additive Construction on Mars” (11 citations), addresses the critical challenge of creating safe, habitable outposts without continuous human oversight. His follow-up study, “Concept Design of an Outpost for Mars Using Autonomous Additive Swarm Construction” (3 citations), further refines the design by assessing key environmental constraints and translating them into functional, comfortable, and secure habitat requirements. Though early in his citation trajectory, Dierckx’s research is foundational for the emerging field of off-world construction, directly informing NASA and ESA’s long-term exploration strategies. His work represents a bold step toward sustainable human presence beyond Earth.