Ethically cleared to launch?

Rules are needed for human research in commercial spaceflight.

Chapitre 1. Espace, éthique et imagination.

Imagination is at the heart of ethical interrogation when it focuses on space activities, present and future. While the first decades of the space enterprise were driven by extremely proactive policies, its goals, its reasons for being must now be more explicit, more reasonable as well as its consequences. Search of extraterrestrial life forms and projects to exploit space resources are two fields of spatial activity that require the association of ethical and imaginary questioning.

Chapitre 8. Hommes ou robots dans l'espace. Approches éthique et juridique.

Who of human or robot has its place in space? The robot, because it can replace human beings for exploration missions that are always particularly dangerous both for the health and the safety of astronauts. But human also tends to gain a place in space, when he can be assisted by the robot as a tool that facilitates his work, or when the machine can serve as a medium to extend humanity to the confines of the universe. All these hypotheses raise ethical and legal questions to which the article gives some solutions.

Chapitre 2. La COMEST et l'éthique de l'Espace.

Mankind entered the space era in 1957 with the first flight of the Soviet Sputnik. Shortly after being set up, UNESCO's COMEST (World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology) examined some of the issues of an ethical nature relating to Man's access to outer space.

Chapitre 3. Le statut de l'espace et des corps célestes.

In order to give some meaning to our subject it is necessary to envisage the notion of status not as a legal conceptual label defining space and the celestial bodies as such, but as all the rules forming the legal regime for space and celestial bodies. Moreover, we have to put into perspective the significance of the subject, essentially because the existing rules apply not to space and celestial bodies but to the human activities that take place there. In fact the very first space treaty is entitled 'Treaty on principles governing the activities of states in the exploration and use of outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies'3.Space law is therefore a functional law and not a statutary law, which explains the pragmatic nature of the great principles to be found in it, including the principle of freedom. This freedom is broad, covering all sorts of activities, including exploitation. The latter point is, however, a polemical one. So it would be better to look at it more specifically after drawing up the general picture of free use of outer space and celestial bodies.

Chapitre 5. Militarisation et arsenalisation de l'espace extra-atmosphérique : perspectives stratégiques et éthico-juridiques.

According to Carl Schmitt, the antonym of 'The ethics of mankind' contained in outer space law is nomos and polemos, ie the idea that (international) law and politics have as their respective nuclei the sharing of territory and a relation of hostility, both of which combine in conquest, in the sense of taking possession of a territory by the use of armed force. The big question is knowing if outer space escapes or will escape the nomos and polemos, or if it also experiences or will experience the struggle for domination. In order to answer this question, the article examines outer space law concerning the military; then 'the ethics of mankind' vis-à-vis nomos and polemos; finally the militarisation and arsenalisation of outer space, from the angle of anti-missile defences and the relationship to nuclear dissuasion, ie the essence of the problem of defence in outer space.

[Chapter 2. COMEST and the ethics of outer space.] / Chapitre 2. La COMEST et l'éthique de l'Espace.

Mankind entered the space era in 1957 with the first flight of the Soviet Sputnik. Shortly after being set up, UNESCO’s COMEST (World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology) examined some of the issues of an ethical nature relating to Man’s access to outer space.

A preliminary approach to quantifying the overall environmental risks posed by development projects during environmental impact assessment.

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is used globally to manage the impacts of development projects on the environment, so there is an imperative to demonstrate that it can effectively identify risky projects. However, despite the widespread use of quantitative predictive risk models in areas such as toxicology, ecosystem modelling and water quality, the use of predictive risk tools to assess the overall expected environmental impacts of major construction and development proposals is comparatively rare. A risk-based approach has many potential advantages, including improved prediction and attribution of cause and effect; sensitivity analysis; continual learning; and optimal resource allocation. In this paper we investigate the feasibility of using a Bayesian belief network (BBN) to quantify the likelihood and consequence of non-compliance of new projects based on the occurrence probabilities of a set of expert-defined features. The BBN incorporates expert knowledge and continually improves its predictions based on new data as it is collected. We use simulation to explore the trade-off between the number of data points and the prediction accuracy of the BBN, and find that the BBN could predict risk with 90% accuracy using approximately 1000 data points. Although a further pilot test with real project data is required, our results suggest that a BBN is a promising method to monitor overall risks posed by development within an existing EIA process given a modest investment in data collection.

How safe is safe enough? Radiation risk for a human mission to Mars.

Astronauts on a mission to Mars would be exposed for up to 3 years to galactic cosmic rays (GCR)--made up of high-energy protons and high charge (Z) and energy (E) (HZE) nuclei. GCR exposure rate increases about three times as spacecraft venture out of Earth orbit into deep space where protection of the Earth's magnetosphere and solid body are lost. NASA's radiation standard limits astronaut exposures to a 3% risk of exposure induced death (REID) at the upper 95% confidence interval (CI) of the risk estimate. Fatal cancer risk has been considered the dominant risk for GCR, however recent epidemiological analysis of radiation risks for circulatory diseases allow for predictions of REID for circulatory diseases to be included with cancer risk predictions for space missions. Using NASA's models of risks and uncertainties, we predicted that central estimates for radiation induced mortality and morbidity could exceed 5% and 10% with upper 95% CI near 10% and 20%, respectively for a Mars mission. Additional risks to the central nervous system (CNS) and qualitative differences in the biological effects of GCR compared to terrestrial radiation may significantly increase these estimates, and will require new knowledge to evaluate.

Ethical considerations for planetary protection in space exploration: a workshop.

With the recognition of an increasing potential for discovery of extraterrestrial life, a diverse set of researchers have noted a need to examine the foundational ethical principles that should frame our collective space activities as we explore outer space. A COSPAR Workshop on Ethical Considerations for Planetary Protection in Space Exploration was convened at Princeton University on June 8-10, 2010, to examine whether planetary protection measures and practices should be extended to protect planetary environments within an ethical framework that goes beyond "science protection" per se. The workshop had been in development prior to a 2006 NRC report on preventing the forward contamination of Mars, although it responded directly to one of the recommendations of that report and to several peer-reviewed papers as well. The workshop focused on the implications and responsibilities engendered when exploring outer space while avoiding harmful impacts on planetary bodies. Over 3 days, workshop participants developed a set of recommendations addressing the need for a revised policy framework to address "harmful contamination" beyond biological contamination, noting that it is important to maintain the current COSPAR planetary protection policy for scientific exploration and activities. The attendees agreed that there is need for further study of the ethical considerations used on Earth and the examination of management options and governmental mechanisms useful for establishing an environmental stewardship framework that incorporates both scientific input and enforcement. Scientists need to undertake public dialogue to communicate widely about these future policy deliberations and to ensure public involvement in decision making. A number of incremental steps have been taken since the workshop to implement some of these recommendations.

Sub-orbital commercial human spaceflight and informed consent.

Commercial spaceflight is expected to rapidly develop in the near future. This will begin with sub-orbital missions and then progress to orbital flights. Technical informed consent of spaceflight participants is required by the commercial spaceflight operator for regulatory purposes. Additionally, though not required by regulation, the aerospace medicine professional involved in the medical screening of both spaceflight participants and crewmembers will be asked to assist operators in obtaining medical informed consent for liability purposes. The various federal and state regulations regarding informed consent for sub-orbital commercial spaceflight are evolving and are unfamiliar to most aerospace medical professionals and are reviewed and discussed.

Radiation risk and human space exploration.

Radiation protection is essential to enable humans to live and work safely in space. Predictions about the nature and magnitude of the risks posed by space radiation are subject to very large uncertainties. Prudent use of worst-case scenarios may impose unacceptable constraints on shielding mass for spacecraft or habitats, tours of duty of crews on Space Station, and on the radius and duration of sorties on planetary surfaces. The NASA Space Radiation Health Program has been devised to develop the knowledge required to accurately predict and to efficiently manage radiation risk. The knowledge will be acquired by means of a peer-reviewed, largely ground-based and investigator-initiated, basic science research program. The NASA Strategic Plan to accomplish these objectives in a manner consistent with the high priority assigned to the protection and health maintenance of crews will be presented.

The physics, biology, and environmental ethics of making mars habitable.

The considerable evidence that Mars once had a wetter, more clement, environment motivates the search for past or present life on that planet. This evidence also suggests the possibility of restoring habitable conditions on Mars. While the total amounts of the key molecules--carbon dioxide, water, and nitrogen--needed for creating a biosphere on Mars are unknown, estimates suggest that there may be enough in the subsurface. Super greenhouse gases, in particular, perfluorocarbons, are currently the most effective and practical way to warm Mars and thicken its atmosphere so that liquid water is stable on the surface. This process could take approximately 100 years. If enough carbon dioxide is frozen in the South Polar Cap and absorbed in the regolith, the resulting thick and warm carbon dioxide atmosphere could support many types of microorganisms, plants, and invertebrates. If a planet-wide martian biosphere converted carbon dioxide into oxygen with an average efficiency equal to that for Earth's biosphere, it would take > 100,000 years to create Earth-like oxygen levels. Ethical issues associated with bringing life to Mars center on the possibility of indigenous martian life and the relative value of a planet with or without a global biosphere.