Human development and the conquest of space

Space age ethics are to be distinguished as a separate set of ethical concepts for several reasons: outer space constitutes a unifying element for mankind; the unique space environment has an international statute; and the impact of space science and the utilization of space technology will always have both positive and negative international consequences and repercussions. Its main objective is an immaterial output-related activity and much of its waste is equally immaterial. Space technology carries another hazard with it - the danger of domination by extrovert cultures. Proper development of space technology requires international cooperation, scientific creativity and technological innovation combined with sociopolitical, economic and cultural aims and objectives and ethical values. Norms and objectives have to take into account religious concepts, humanistic viewpoints and sociocultural criteria. The ethics of the conquest of space have to consider the benefit of all mankind and that of each single individual, group and society as complementary and of equal importance.     

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.     

Ten thousand revolutions: conjectures about civilizations

Ten thousand years ago, no-one on Earth was living a “civilized” life. What has happened since is remarkable and impossible to fully comprehend; yet, everyone has ideas about civilization, and how the world came to be as it is. Such understandings of civilizations on Earth inevitably influence speculation about extraterrestrial civilizations, in two ways. First, sometimes a specific Earth civilization or historical experience is explicitly used as a basis for inferences about extraterrestrial civilizations. Second, more general assumptions about the development and functioning of Earth's societies shape conjectures about alien societies. This paper focuses on the latter, general assumptions, with the aim of considering how we can use multidisciplinary approaches, and our knowledge of Earth's civilizations, to our best advantage in SETI.     

Astrobiology—a new opportunity for interdisciplinary thinking

During the past decade new questions in science have emerged that require broad inter-disciplinary approaches. ‘Do asteroids and comets cause extinctions?’ and ‘Was there, or is there, life on Mars?’ are just two examples of questions that cut across planetary or astronomical sciences and biological sciences. The re-emergent science of ‘astrobiology’ represents a new synthesis of inter-disciplinary thinking that in many respects bears similarities to what in the 18th and 19th century would have been called ‘Natural Sciences’. But new astrobiology offers the scientific community, including the space community, two important possibilities. First, an opportunity to galvanize diverse scientific disciplines together to answer some fundamental questions on the relationship between life and the cosmic environment and, second, a chance to create a new environment conducive to interdisciplinary thinking. This is in contrast to the general trend that occurred during the 20th century towards increasing specialization in the sciences. During the 21st century astrobiology has the potential to open rich and productive seams of research.     

Space Development with Chinese Characteristics and its Practical Significance

China's space industry has been developed quickly and consistently setting new records for mankind in space exploration in the past 60 years. Four principles are upheld during its development. Systems engineering and overall thinking have played an important role in the development of China's space industry. What's more, the concept of systems engineering which originated from the space industry, being rooted in society, is a successful example of "Chinese theory" answering "Chinese question" and "Chinese wisdom" guiding "Chinese development", which is a trump card for the country and provides a unique business governance mode with Chinese characteristics.     

The impact of culture on human and space development--new millennial challenge

The Space Age is causing new applications to the concept of culture, a human coping tool. The exploration and exploitation of outer space resources are altering human culture both on Earth and in orbit. For the first time in history, our species need not merely react and adapt to environment, but plan for a space culture appropriate for extraterrestrial migration. The impact of culture can be analyzed in terms of how space developments alter human perceptions and behavior on this planet; the emergence of a new culture to suit the orbital environment; the organizations that build spacecraft and deploy people aloft; and the technological systems created for spacefaring. This article presents a paradigm for analyzing some of the non-technical human factors involved in space undertakings. It also offers a method for classifying a culture according to ten categories which may be applied both to a macroculture, such as a lunar base; or a microculture, such as a space agency or crew. Human enterprise in space is viewed as both altering the species, and providing a challenge for expanded behavioral and biological scientific research on living and working in space.     

Space activities in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

This paper summarizes the establishment and current development of space activities in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Space activities in Venezuela are focused on the areas of telecommunications, Earth observation and research on the physical properties of the Earth, and have as a primary goal the satisfaction of social needs. Current development of space activities started in 1999 when the new National Constitution recognized the value of outer space as the common heritage of mankind, and the key role of science and technology in promoting human welfare. The Bolivarian Agency for Space Activities (ABAE) was created in 2007. Its legal framework recognizes three key elements that drive its policy: the participation of society, capacity building and human training, and international cooperation. Indeed ongoing international cooperation with partners such as China, India, Brazil and Uruguay has already expanded Venezuelan space capabilities, allowing the country to launch its first telecommunications satellite, Venesat-1 in 2008, to plan the infrastructure development for the design of small satellites, and to train 1195 local professionals in space science, technology and applications. Our analysis shows that Venezuela has the potential to become a space leadership country, promoting the social welfare, integration, and sustainable development of Latin American countries.     

A 12 years brazilian space education activity experience

A multidisciplinary group of students from the university and latter also from the high school was formed in 1988 with the objective to make them put in practice their knowledge in physics, chemistry and mathematics and engineering fields in experimental rocketry. The group was called “Grupo de Foguetes Experimentais”, GFE.Since that time more than 150 students passed throw the group and now many of them are in the space arena.The benefits for students in a space hands-on project are many:

1. More interest in their school subjects is gotten as they see an application for them;

2. Interrelation attitudes are learned as space projects is a team activity;

3. Responsibility is gained as each is responsible for a part of a critical mission project;

4. Multidisciplinary and international experience is gotten as these are space project characteristics;

5. Learn how to work in a high stress environment as use to be a project launch.

This paper will cover the educational experiences gotten during these years and how some structured groups work. It is explained the objectives and how the group was formed. The group structure and the different phases that at each year the new team passes are described. It is shown the different activities that the group uses to do from scientific seminars, scientific club and international meetings to technical tours and assistance to rocket activities in regional schools.It is also explained the group outreach activities as some launches were covered by the media in more then 6 articles in newspaper and 7 television news.In 1999 as formed an official group called NATA, Núcleo de Atividades Aerospaciais within the Universidade Estadual de Londrina, UEL, by some GFE members and teachers from university. It is explained the first group project results.     

Human dimensions in space development

Space exploration is now moving beyond the stage when technical development dominated research. As thinking shifts towards the problems of long-term colonization of the Solar System, the biological and behavioural sciences must make major contributions. This article outlines some of the issues which must be addressed, such as group behaviour and dynamics in space flight, the environment created at space stations and other outposts, recruitment and training of suitable spacefarers, and the planning and governing of space settlements. Ten dimensions of the human aspect of space habitation are described and an indication given of how they may form the basis for a new taxonomy of space planning, operations and management.     

Lessons learned from the York University Rover Team (YURT) at the University Rover Challenge 2008–2009

In this paper, we explore the lessons learned from the work of the York University Rover Team (YURT), which designed, built, and operated two prototype rovers for the University Rover Challenge (URC) in 2008 and 2009, placing third in the first year, and winning first place in the second year. We outline the competition, the team, and briefly describe the York University space engineering program. Both of the rovers are described with evaluations of each major component and the resulting design changes. A general trend toward design modularity, purpose-driven customizations, and better critical thinking in the design process is evident as the team gains experience. Also, the value of this project as an educational medium is evaluated with respect to traditional classroom learning. Participating students from a wide range of disciplines gained real-world experience in both “hard” engineering skills such as mechanical and electronic design, fabrication, and testing, and “soft” skills such as project management, system-level thinking, creative problem solving, and interpersonal skills. Lessons learned from this include the necessity of good financial management, the importance of marketing and outreach, the use of short and simple development steps, and the need for comprehensive contingency planning. We conclude that the URC provided an inter-disciplinary, cooperative educational environment, and that student engineering projects such as this can provide “soft” skills through experiential education that are normally difficult to teach in the classroom.     

Article

This is a slightly edited version of the Executive Summary of a joint report on cooperation in space science produced by the Space Studies Board of the USA National Research Council and the European Space Science Committee of the European Science Foundation. Using analysis of 13 case-study missions it reviews 30 years of joint missions and makes 14 recommendations based on its findings. These include the importance of setting a scientific rationale for each mission and of ensuring that objectives are shared by engineers and others involved in it, the need for independent periodic assessments and that all agreements should specify the scope, expectations and obligations of the respective agencies and relevant partners.The USA and Europe have been cooperating in space science for more than three decades. This history of cooperation has survived significant geopolitical, economic and technological changes, such as the end of the Cold War, the pressure of budget reductions and the increasing focus on economic competition and the global marketplace. Both Europe and the USA have learned from one another and acquired a knowledge base as well as an infrastructure to implement joint missions and research activities. More importantly, the decades of cooperative space research efforts between the USA and Europe have built a community of scientists whose joint scientific exchanges have established a heritage of cooperation on both sides of the Atlantic.The scientific fruits of this heritage are plainly evident in achievements such as a signature for supermassive black holes provided by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST); the first views of the solar atmosphere and corona illuminated by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO); the sharing of expensive research facilities on the International Microgravity Laboratory (IML); and the impressive data on ocean altimetry from the Ocean Topography Experiment (TOPEX-POSEIDON) mission, which is significantly improving our understanding of global ocean circulation.There were no guideposts for the emergence of space science cooperation between Europe and the USA. In the process of introducing new procedures and improvements to facilitate cooperation, missteps occurred, and there were political, economic and scientific losses. This report takes stock of US–European history in cooperative space endeavors, the lessons it has demonstrated and the opportunities it suggests to enhance and improve future US–European cooperative efforts in the sciences conducted in space.     

On the contribution of space medicine in the public health care

With the beginning of space era, a new branch of medicine has arisen and has been developing along with human exploration of outer space. And even though space medicine mainly faces the same problems as traditional medicine--cosmonauts health care and their high efficiency--this branch, has its own features, associated with the unusual factors of space flight, of which weightlessness is the major one. During the development of manned cosmonautics (duration of a human stay in space has reached already 438 days), methods of cosmonauts medical support and monitoring of their condition have been developed, knowledge of human possibilities and methods of process of organism adaptation to various and frequently severe conditions of external environment have increased. All this led to the fact that nowadays space medicine can become useful for improvement of human health care not only in space but also on the Earth. Moreover, the problem of implementation of cosmonautics achievements, and in particular of space medicine, in practice of public health care presents one of the most important issues concerning human health care. It is also connected with public opinion which is more and more concerned about the efficiency of significant expenses on space activities, especially lately. People often are set by the questions: what has space given, what fruits has space research provided to mankind, which results of this research can be used on the Earth already today for improvement of their life, for discussion of many difficult earthly problems? In terms of using cosmonautics possibilities, its achievements for health care and treatment, it is possible to define a few branches, in which purposeful studies are carried out.     

Opening the world's skies for mankind

Admiral Stansfield Turner has recently written a book, “Secrecy and Democracy — the CIA in Transition”. In it he proposes a dramatic new plan for using our intelligence systems, such as satellites, to help preserve peace and to improve the standard of living of all mankind. This article consists of excerpts from the book which describe this concept.     

Space as a strategic vision for Turkey and its people

Turkey entered the 21st century making increasing efforts towards rapid economic and technological development, social change and renewal of its infrastructure. Naturally this process places a heavy load on the current system and it affects every section of society at various rates. Turkey must get involved in new areas in order to continue its development progress by minimizing such effects. One of these new areas is space, which has become an important tool for protecting and improving civilization and is a strategic expression of Turkey's future. This article outlines Turkey's potential in space activities, considers the current situation of space activities in the country and shows their evolution over 20 years with a view to identifying promising developments. Turkey is actively determining the necessary policies to allow future generations to compete in the international arena in the long term. But Turkey must also clarify what sort of space organization model it wants to pursue.     

Skill maintenance in extended spaceflight: a human factors analysis of space and analogue work environments

This paper discusses the implications of increasing mission lengths of manned spaceflight for the design of future space systems from a human factors point of view. It is argued that the increase in mission duration has brought about a number of new problems, which have not been sufficiently addressed in space research. Therefore, a review of analogue work environments is carried out to make up for the paucity of space research found in the area of human performance in long-duration spaceflight. This resulted in an evaluation of seven analogue environments concerning their similarity to space with industrial process control and nuclear submarines coming out as the closest match on the technical dimension. Finally, some recommendations are given from the lessons learned in spaceflight, simulation studies and appropriate analogue environments.     

From Halley's Comet to solar terrestrial science : The evolution of the Inter-Agency consultative group

The Inter-Agency Consultative Group (IACG) is an organization which seeks to maximize scientific returns from focused areas of space science through international cooperation. In its 11-year history the IACG has experienced both monumental success (with the collaborative exploration of Comet Halley) and, more recently, some serious growing pains in its second phase of operation, which focuses on solar terrestrial science. In this post-Cold War period, with increased interaction between countries offering greater opportunities for cooperation, the lessons to be learned from the IACG's experience will be valuable ones.     

Inter-Parliamentary Union seeks peace in outer space

The Centenary Conference of the Inter-Parliamentary Union took place in London on 4–9 September 1989. Its deliberations focused largely on the issue of peaceful access to space and its exploitation for the benefit of all mankind. A resolution on the subject was adopted (see Documentation section of this issue). This report outlines the debate.     

A crisis in the NASA space and Earth sciences programme : NASA Space and Earth Sciences Committee

The US space and Earth science programme is in a time of crisis. As the research environment changes and new scientific opportunities emerge, a broader range of resources is needed, including substantial new flight opportunities. There are a growing number of claimants for space research resources. Fluctuations in funding, programme delays and mismatched time scales have contributed to wasted time and research efforts. A new commitment is needed in this crisis; this article contains a summary of the analysis and recommendations of a recent report of NASA advisory committee.     

SciBox,an end-to-end automated science planning and commanding system

SciBox is a new technology for planning and commanding science operations for Earth-orbital and planetary space missions. It has been incrementally developed since 2001 and demonstrated on several spaceflight projects. The technology has matured to the point that it is now being used to plan and command all orbital science operations for the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) mission to Mercury. SciBox encompasses the derivation of observing sequences from science objectives, the scheduling of those sequences, the generation of spacecraft and instrument commands, and the validation of those commands prior to uploading to the spacecraft. Although the process is automated, science and observing requirements are incorporated at each step by a series of rules and parameters to optimize observing opportunities, which are tested and validated through simulation and review. Except for limited special operations and tests, there is no manual scheduling of observations or construction of command sequences. SciBox reduces the lead time for operations planning by shortening the time-consuming coordination process, reduces cost by automating the labor-intensive processes of human-in-the-loop adjudication of observing priorities, reduces operations risk by systematically checking constraints, and maximizes science return by fully evaluating the trade space of observing opportunities to meet MESSENGER science priorities within spacecraft recorder, downlink, scheduling, and orbital-geometry constraints.