How shall we live in space? Culture, law and ethics in spacefaring society

The US civilian space program is focused on planning for a new round of human missions beyond Earth orbit, to realize a ‘vision’ for exploration articulated by President George W. Bush. It is important to examine this ‘vision’ in the broader context of the global enterprise of 21st century space exploration. How will extending a human presence into the Solar System affect terrestrial society and culture? What legal, ethical and other value systems should govern human activities in space? This paper will describe the current environment for space policy making and possible frameworks for future space law, ethics and culture. It also proposes establishment of a World Space Conference to aid deliberations on the above.     

Planetary protection—A microbial ethics approach

Planetary protection policies designed to reduce the cross-transfer of life on spacecraft from one planet to another can either be formulated from the pragmatic instrumental needs of scientific exploration, or from ethical principles. I address planetary protection concerns by starting from a normative ethical framework for the treatment of microorganisms. This argues that they have intrinsic value at the level of the individual through to the level of the community, but at the individual level this ethic can only be theoretical. This approach yields a solution to the problem of the inevitable contamination of Mars by human explorers and suggests that in some instances the local contamination of other planets may be acceptable. An exception would be where this contamination would cause destruction of microbial ecosystems. Within the framework of such an ethic, the term ‘planetary protection’ may be normatively too narrow and ‘planetary preservation’ may better describe the activity of controlling cross-inoculation of planets. I discuss an example of a contamination event that might be ethically acceptable within the framework of ‘preservation’, but would be regarded as unacceptable under current planetary ‘protection’ guidelines.     

The NASA astrobiology program

The new discipline of astrobiology addresses fundamental questions about life in the universe: "Where did we come from?" "Are we alone in the universe?" "What is our future beyond the Earth?" Developing capabilities in biotechnology, informatics, and space exploration provide new tools to address these old questions. The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has encouraged this new discipline by organizing workshops and technical meetings, establishing a NASA Astrobiology Institute, providing research funds to individual investigators, ensuring that astrobiology goals are incorporated in NASA flight missions, and initiating a program of public outreach and education. Much of the initial effort by NASA and the research community was focused on determining the technical content of astrobiology. This paper discusses the initial answer to the question "What is astrobiology?" as described in the NASA Astrobiology Roadmap.     

The NASA Astrobiology Roadmap

The NASA Astrobiology Roadmap provides guidance for research and technology development across the NASA enterprises that encompass the space, Earth, and biological sciences. The ongoing development of astrobiology roadmaps embodies the contributions of diverse scientists and technologists from government, universities, and private institutions. The Roadmap addresses three basic questions: how does life begin and evolve, does life exist elsewhere in the universe, and what is the future of life on Earth and beyond? Seven Science Goals outline the following key domains of investigation: understanding the nature and distribution of habitable environments in the universe, exploring for habitable environments and life in our own Solar System, understanding the emergence of life, determining how early life on Earth interacted and evolved with its changing environment, understanding the evolutionary mechanisms and environmental limits of life, determining the principles that will shape life in the future, and recognizing signatures of life on other worlds and on early Earth. For each of these goals, Science Objectives outline more specific high priority efforts for the next three to five years. These eighteen objectives are being integrated with NASA strategic planning.     

The NASA Astrobiology Institute: early history and organization

The NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) was established as a means to advance the field of astrobiology by providing a multidisciplinary, multi-institution, science-directed program, executed by universities, research institutes, and NASA and other government laboratories. The scientific community and NASA defined the science content at several workshops as summarized in the NASA Astrobiology Roadmap. Teams were chosen nationwide, following the recommendations of external review groups, and the research program began in 1998. There are now 16 national Teams and five international affiliated and associated astrobiology institutions. The NAI has attracted an outstanding group of scientific groups and individuals. The Institute facilitates the involvement of the scientists in its scientific and management vision. Its goal is to support basic research and allow the scientists the freedom to select their projects and alter them as indicated by new research. Additional missions include the education of the public, the involvement of students who will be the astrobiologists of future generations, and the development of a culture of collaboration in NAI, a "virtual institute," spread across many sites nationally and internationally.     

The NASA Astrobiology Roadmap

The NASA Astrobiology Roadmap provides guidance for research and technology development across the NASA enterprises that encompass the space, Earth, and biological sciences. The ongoing development of astrobiology roadmaps embodies the contributions of diverse scientists and technologists from government, universities, and private institutions. The Roadmap addresses three basic questions: How does life begin and evolve, does life exist elsewhere in the universe, and what is the future of life on Earth and beyond? Seven Science Goals outline the following key domains of investigation: understanding the nature and distribution of habitable environments in the universe, exploring for habitable environments and life in our own solar system, understanding the emergence of life, determining how early life on Earth interacted and evolved with its changing environment, understanding the evolutionary mechanisms and environmental limits of life, determining the principles that will shape life in the future, and recognizing signatures of life on other worlds and on early Earth. For each of these goals, Science Objectives outline more specific high-priority efforts for the next 3-5 years. These 18 objectives are being integrated with NASA strategic planning.     

Astrobiology can help space science,education and the economy

Astrobiology is a subject dedicated to understanding the origin, evolution and distribution of life. Astrobiology is a multidisciplinary discipline within which useful information comes from a variety of environments and from a myriad of techniques. The challenges of the Global Exploration Roadmap contain intrinsic astrobiology questions and opportunities. The potential astrobiology returns include scientific, educational and economic benefits.     

Interdisciplinary Odysseys: The ESF/ESA/ESPI Vienna Conference on Humans in Outer Space

An interdisciplinary approach to discussing the human presence in outer space was undertaken on 11–12 October 2007 by the European Science Foundation (ESF), ESA and the European Space Policy Institute (ESPI). At the ‘Humans in Outer Space—Interdisciplinary Odysseys’ conference space experts and scholars from the area of humanities as well as social sciences discussed the roles disciplines such as law, philosophy, ethics, culture, art and psychology will increasingly play in space exploration. Conference output took form in the ‘Vienna Vision’, which provides a unique European perspective on the various needs and interests of humanities and social sciences linked with space exploration. This report presents the goals and outcome of the conference, as well describing the analysis leading to the creation of the Vienna Vision.     

An online astrobiology course for teachers

A continuing challenge for scientists is to keep K-12 teachers informed about new scientific developments. Over the past few years, this challenge has increased as new research findings have come from the field of astrobiology. In addition to trying to keep abreast of these new discoveries, K-12 teachers must also face the demands of the content and pedagogical goals imposed by state and national science education standards. Furthermore, many teachers lack the scientific content knowledge or training in current teaching methods to create their own activities or to implement appropriately new teaching materials designed to meet the standards. There is a clear need for special courses designed to increase the scientific knowledge of K-12 science teachers. In response to this need, the authors developed a suite of innovative, classroom-ready lessons for grades 5-12 that emphasize an active engagement instructional strategy and focus on the recent discoveries in the field of astrobiology. They further created a graduate-level, Internet-based distance-learning course for teachers to help them become familiar with these astrobiology concepts and to gain firsthand experience with the National Science Education Standards-based instructional strategies.     

Lunar astrobiology: a review and suggested laboratory equipment

In October of 2005, the European Space Agency (ESA) and Alcatel Alenia Spazio released a "call to academia for innovative concepts and technologies for lunar exploration." In recent years, interest in lunar exploration has increased in numerous space programs around the globe, and the purpose of our study, in response to the ESA call, was to draw on the expertise of researchers and university students to examine science questions and technologies that could support human astrobiology activity on the Moon. In this mini review, we discuss astrobiology science questions of importance for a human presence on the surface of the Moon and we provide a summary of key instrumentation requirements to support a lunar astrobiology laboratory.     

Space ethics and protection of the space environment

The construction of the International Space Station in low Earth orbit and the formulation of plans to search for life on Mars indicate that mankind is intent on making the space environment part of its domain. Publicity surrounding space tourism, in-space ‘burials’ and the sale of lunar ‘real estate’ suggests that, some time in the 21st century, the space environment will become an extension of our current terrestrial business and domestic environment. This prompts the question of our collective attitude towards the space environment and the degree to which we should regulate its use and protect it for future generations. This article offers a pragmatic view of an ethical code for space exploration and development, as far as it relates to the protection of the space environment.     

Spatial Thinking in Undergraduate Science Education

Spatial thinking is central to many scientific domains and professions spatial ability predicts success and participation in science. However spatial thinking is not is not emphasized in our educational system. This paper presents a selective review of four types of studies regarding spatial thinking in undergraduate science curricula; (1) correlational studies examining the relations between measures of spatial ability and performance in science disciplines, (2) studies that attempt to train aspects of spatial thinking, (3) studies of how students understand specific spatial representations in sciences (4) studies that use dynamic spatial representations to promote scientific understanding. For each type of study, the evidence is critically evaluated and conclusions are drawn about how to nurture spatial thinking in science.     

From initial ideas to a European plan: GMES as an exemplar of European space strategy

Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) is an idea which originated during a meeting in Baveno, Italy, in May 1998, which generated a call for Europe to get its act together in the field of environmental monitoring from space, to define a well articulated strategy in this area and to build upon its excellent scientific research community, its proven technical prowess in Earth observation from space and its nascent political will to express its objectives in international fora related to climate change and other global environment topics. While Europe was already active in the most advanced areas of global monitoring, its rather uncoordinated efforts (even within the European Commission) lacked visibility and did not appear to fit into a clearly established strategy. The ‘Baveno initiative’ was an attempt to remedy this situation and find a place within a developing ‘European Strategy for Space’, which requires ESA and the European Union to work more closely together. GMES was extended to include the ‘security’ (in its wider sense) aspects of global monitoring, a move that produced a number of questions and misunderstandings, but which allowed many in Europe to realize that monitoring the activities of the Earth’ land masses, oceans and atmosphere do include a security dimension. GMES will eventually incorporate an implementation plan which will call upon various monitoring techniques, ambitious modelling projects and connections with society's more urgent requirements with respect to environmental protection and prevention or reduction of risks related to natural hazards. This will entail significant efforts to inform the user communities and to convince them of the relevance and usefulness of this initiative. It will also provide a sound basis for the European contribution to the new initiative for improved coordination of strategies and systems for Earth observations called for by the July 2003 Earth Observation Summit.     

Launch vouchers for space science research

Recent US space policy proposes the use of space transportation ‘vouchers’ for space science payloads. Vouchers could affect the pace of space science and developments in space transportation both in the USA and internationally. This article focuses on the economic costs and benefits of vouchers, and strategies for effective programme design.     

Pricing competitively — a response to Jay Lightfoot

A recent paper in this journal criticized the two methods commonly used to allocate the costs of multi-payload launches, and proposed two new alternatives. The paper argued that ‘Shapley-value’ pricing and the ‘Independent Cost Proportional Scheme’ are immune to instability problems possible under the traditional mass-proportional approach, and reduce ‘subsidies’ paid to small payloads. This rejoinder shows that neither claim is true in general. It also questions whether new pricing formulas are truly needed — or even sustainable in today's competitive market.     

A new chapter in doctoral candidate training: The Helmholtz Space Life Sciences Research School (SpaceLife)

In the field of space life sciences, the demand of an interdisciplinary and specific training of young researchers is high due to the complex interaction of medical, biological, physical, technical and other questions. The Helmholtz Space Life Sciences Research School (SpaceLife) offers an excellent interdisciplinary training for doctoral students from different fields (biology, biochemistry, biotechnology, physics, psychology, nutrition or sports sciences and related fields) and any country. SpaceLife is coordinated by the Institute of Aerospace Medicine at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Cologne. The German Universities in Kiel, Bonn, Aachen, Regensburg, Magdeburg and Berlin, and the German Sports University (DSHS) in Cologne are members of SpaceLife. The Universities of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Frankfurt, Hohenheim, and the Beihang University in Beijing are associated partners.In each generation, up to 25 students can participate in the three-year program. Students learn to develop integrated concepts to solve health issues in human spaceflight and in related disease patterns on Earth, and to further explore the requirements for life in extreme environments, enabling a better understanding of the ecosystem Earth and the search for life on other planets in unmanned and manned missions.The doctoral candidates are coached by two specialist supervisors from DLR and the partner university, and a mentor. All students attend lectures in different subfields of space life sciences to attain an overview of the field: radiation and gravitational biology, astrobiology and space physiology, including psychological aspects of short and long term space missions. Seminars, advanced lectures, laboratory courses and stays at labs at the partner institutions or abroad are offered as elective course and will provide in-depth knowledge of the chosen subfield or allow to appropriate innovative methods. In Journal Clubs of the participating working groups, doctoral students learn critical reading of scientific literature, first steps in peer review, scientific writing during preparation of their own publication, and writing of the thesis. The training of soft skills is offered as block course in cooperation with other Helmholtz Research Schools. The whole program encompasses 303 h and is organized in semester terms. The first doctoral candidates started the program in spring 2009.     

A systems and concurrent engineering framework for the integrated development of space products

This paper proposes a framework for the integrated development of space products. The framework is called ‘total view framework’ because it provides the total set of product, process and organisation elements and their interactions from the outset in the development process. It uses systems engineering (SE) and concurrent engineering (CE) in an integrated manner, as part of the same framework. The framework extends the application of the SE process to life cycle processes and their performing organisations and applies CE at all levels of the hierarchical product breakdown structure. The ‘total view framework’ is supported by a method, called ‘concurrent structured analysis method’, that consists of the three analysis processes: requirements, functional and physical. These processes mirror the bulk of the SE process and are applied concurrently to product, process and organisations. The outputs of the method are requirements, functional attributes, physical attributes and the interactions among them. These outputs are then analysed using a clustering algorithm and a complexity metric based on cohesion and coupling shows the clustering effects.     

Sputnik fever — again?

The author offers some comments on the drawbacks of another US-Soviet space race. She compares the relative positions of the USA and the USSR in various areas of space science and technology, and concludes that the USSR does not lead in all areas. More importantly, she argues that it is distressing still to be portraying the superpowers as in a race in space. ‘Sputnik fever’ the first time round showed that a space race does not lead to a strong, long-term US space programme. She argues that cooperation in some areas — perhaps a trip to Mars — could b an alternative.     

Space spin-offs: Making them known, improving their use

This paper identifies new ideas for using existing space technologies as spin-offs and considers the effectiveness of the use of such technologies for various industries and applications. It then explores the dissemination of knowledge and information about such spin-off technology and applications to various audiences. It proposes methods to improve the dissemination of such knowledge and information. The paper concludes with some recommendations on how the dissemination of information about space spin-offs can increase awareness and use of such technology and, in the long term, increase support for space activities. The perspective of this article is that of the world's various space agencies and the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS). It is recognized that truly effective spin-offs depend on the involvement of those outside the space arena, particularly the commercial, academic and governmental sectors. These sectors and the general public must see the value and cost efficiency of ‘spin-offs’ and of developing new technology and systems through space research programs or they will not succeed. This may require space agencies to stay more focused on research and to hand over functions and activities to these ‘outside sectors’ once ‘seeds are planted’.     

Initial characterization of the microgravity environment of the international space station: increments 2 through 4

The primary objective of the International Space Station (ISS) is to provide a long-term quiescent environment for the conduct of scientific research for a variety of microgravity science disciplines. This paper reports to the microgravity scientific community the results of an initial characterization of the microgravity environment on the International Space Station for increments 2 through 4. During that period almost 70,000 hours of station operations and scientific experiments were conducted. 720 hours of crew research time were logged aboard the orbiting laboratory and over half a terabyte of acceleration data were recorded and much of that was analyzed. The results discussed in this paper cover both the quasi-steady and vibratory acceleration environment of the station during its first year of scientific operation. For the quasi-steady environment, results are presented and discussed for the following: the space station attitudes Torque Equilibrium Attitude and the X-Axis Perpendicular to the Orbital Plane; station docking attitude maneuvers; Space Shuttle joint operation with the station; cabin de-pressurizations and the station water dumps. For the vibratory environment, results are presented for the following: crew exercise, docking events, and the activation/de-activation of both station life support system hardware and experiment hardware. Finally, a grand summary of all the data collected aboard the station during the 1-year period is presented showing where the overall quasi-steady and vibratory acceleration magnitude levels fall over that period of time using a 95th percentile benchmark.