Space Ethics

Brian Patrick Green is the director of technology ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University. Green teaches AI ethics in the Graduate School of Engineering and formerly taught several other engineering ethics courses. He is co-author of the Ethics in Technology Practice corporate technology ethics resources.

The emerging commercial space industry is raising new types of ethical questions about the privatization of space travel and planetary exploration. The industry is carrying out commercial endeavors ahead of the development of specifically established government regulations and industry standards. Much of the oversight of commercial space flight emerges from the Federal Aviation Administration and commercial space industries. As lucidly explained in this book, the ethical issues of space flight involve human safety issues, environmental quality concerns, and business conduct and integrity practices typically associated with new technologies and entrepreneurial ventures. The author compares the ramifications of current planetary space flight endeavors to those of the long-distance ocean voyages early peoples seeking resources and livelihoods in distant lands made. The text also describes novel ethical concerns related to living in space and encountering life-forms that may exist on other planets. The viewpoints expressed in the book are pragmatic and based on the author's experiences as director of a technology ethics program. Green discusses the philosophical principles underlying each ethical concern of interest. A case study, discussion questions, and recommended further readings from primary sources supplement each chapter. Recommended. All readers.

• CHAPTER 1: Why Space Ethics? CHAPTER 2: Questions of “Should”: Ethics Applied to SpaceCHAPTER 3: Risk and SafetyCHAPTER 4: Space and Human HealthCHAPTER 5: The Dangers of Space DebrisCHAPTER 6: Military, Dual-Use Activities, and International Relations in SpaceCHAPTER 7: Protecting Earth from Hazardous Asteroids and Other Extraterrestrial DangersCHAPTER 8: Astrobiology and the Search for Extraterrestrial LifeCHAPTER 9: Contamination, Planetary Protection, and Responsible ExplorationCHAPTER 10: The Search for Extraterrestrial IntelligenceCHAPTER 11: New Players in Space: New Nations and Commercial, Private, and Non-Governmental Activities in SpaceCHAPTER 12: Traveling to the Planets and the Stars: Very Long Duration Spaceflight and Human BiologyCHAPTER 13: Building Your Martian Home: Living in and Settlement of SpaceCHAPTER 14: Planetary-Scale Interventions on Earth and AfarCHAPTER 15: ConclusionGLOSSARYBIBLIOGRAPHY