Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-16T16:09:26.475Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Where no planetary protection policy has gone before

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 July 2018

James S.J. Schwartz
James S.J. Schwartz*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Wichita State University, 1845 N. Fairmount, Wichita, KS 67260, USA
*
Author for correspondence: James S.J. Schwartz, E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

I argue that the attempts of astrobiologists and philosophers to provide an ethical justification for planetary protection policies (in particular, those aspects of policy concerning forward contamination) suffer from a ‘life bias’ in that reasons for protection are regarded as genuinely ethical only when they include some kind of direct moral consideration for extraterrestrial life. There are, I maintain, good reasons for the protection of space environments, including the protection of sites of interest to disciplines other than astrobiology. These reasons are no less ethical simply because their aim is something other than the protection of extraterrestrial life. While the possible existence of such reasons has been recognized, they have yet to be developed in a philosophically satisfying way. This paper aims to fill this lacuna by motivating and articulating an ethical perspective which recommends broader protection of the space environment. Long-range implications for such a broadening of planetary protection are considered, including implications for interstellar exploration.

Keywords

Environmental preservationethicsinterstellar explorationplanetary protectionsolar system exploration
Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Astrobiology , Volume 18 , Issue 4 , August 2019 , pp. 353 - 361
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Almár, I (2002) What could COSPAR do to protect the planetary and space environment? Advances in Space Research 30, 1577–1581.Google Scholar
Cockell, C (2005) Planetary protection – a microbial ethics approach. Space Policy 21, 287–292.Google Scholar
Cockell, C (2006) The ethical relevance of earth-like extrasolar planets. Environmental Ethics 28, 303–314.Google Scholar
Cockell, C (2008) Interstellar planetary protection. Advances in Space Research 42, 1161–1165.Google Scholar
Cockell, C (2011) Ethics and extraterrestrial life. In Landfester, U et al. (eds), Humans in Outer Space – Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Vienna: Springer, pp. 80–101.Google Scholar
Cockell, C (2016) The ethical status of microbial life on earth and elsewhere: in defence of intrinsic value. In Schwartz, JSJ and Milligan, T (eds), The Ethics of Space Exploration. Switzerland: Springer, pp. 167–179.Google Scholar
Cockell, C and Horneck, G (2004) A planetary park system for Mars. Space Policy 20, 291–295.Google Scholar
Cockell, C and Horneck, G (2006) Planetary parks – formulation a wilderness policy for planetary bodies. Space Policy 22, 256–261.Google Scholar
Dundas, C, McEwen, A, Chojnacki, M, Milazzo, M, Byrne, S, McElwaine, J and Urso, A. (2017) Granular flows at recurring slope lineae on Mars indicate a limited role for liquid water. Nature Geoscience 10, 903–907.Google Scholar
Kminek, G, Conley, C, Hipkin, V and Yano, H (2017) COSPAR's planetary protection policy. Space Research Today 200, 12–25.Google Scholar
Kramer, W (2014) Extraterrestrial environmental impact assessments – a foreseeable prerequisite for wise decisions regarding outer space exploration, research and development. Space Policy 30, 215–222.Google Scholar
Kramer, W (2017) In dreams begin responsibilities – environmental impact assessment and outer space development. Environmental Practice 19, 128–138.Google Scholar
Lee, K (1994) Awe and humility: intrinsic value in nature – beyond an earthbound environmental ethics. In Attfield, R and Belsey, A (eds), Philosophy and the Natural Environment. New York, USA: Cambridge University Press, pp. 89–101.Google Scholar
Losch, A (2018) The need of an ethics of planetary sustainability. International Journal of Astrobiology, forthcoming.Google Scholar
Lubin, P (2016) A roadmap to interstellar flight. Journal of the British Interplanetary Society 69, 40–72.Google Scholar
Lupisella, M (1997) The rights of Martians. Space Policy 13, 89–94.Google Scholar
Lupisella, M (2009) The search for extraterrestrial life: epistemology, ethics, and worldviews. In Bertka, CM (ed), Exploring the Origin, Extent, and Future of Life: Philosophical, Ethical, and Theological Perspectives. New York, USA: Cambridge University Press, pp. 186–204.Google Scholar
Macauley, M (2007) Environmentally sustainable human space activities: can challenges of planetary protection be reconciled? Astropolitics 5, 209–236.Google Scholar
Marshall, A (1993) Ethics and the extraterrestrial environment. Journal of Applied Philosophy 10, 227–236.Google Scholar
McCurdy, H (2011) Space and the American Imagination, 2nd Edn. Baltimore, MD, USA: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
McKay, C (1990) Does Mars have rights? An approach to the environmental ethics of planetary engineering. In MacNiven, D (ed), Moral Expertise: Studies in Practical and Professional Ethics. New York, USA: Routledge, pp. 184–197.Google Scholar
McMahon, S (2016) The aesthetic objection to terraforming Mars. In Schwartz, JSJ and Milligan, T (eds), The Ethics of Space Exploration. Switzerland: Springer, pp. 209–218.Google Scholar
Meltzer, M (2011) When Biosopheres Collide: A History of NASA's Planetary Protection Programs. NASA SP-2011-4234.Google Scholar
Milligan, T (2015) Nobody Owns the Moon: The Ethics of Space Exploitation. Jefferson, NC, USA: McFarland.Google Scholar
Munévar, G (1998) A philosopher looks at space exploration. In Munévar, G (eds), Evolution and the Naked Truth. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, pp. 169–179.Google Scholar
National Geographic Society (1994) Symposium Proceedings of the What is the Value of Space Exploration?. Available at: https://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/hqlibrary/documents/o33273018.pdf; accessed 7 July 2016.Google Scholar
Rolston, H III (1986) The preservation of natural value in the solar system. In Hargrove, E (ed), Beyond Spaceship Earth: Environmental Ethics and the Solar System. San Francisco, CA, USA: Sierra Club Books, pp. 140–182.Google Scholar
Rummel, J (2015) Providing for sustainable exploration and use of outer space environments. In Cockell, C (ed), Human Governance Beyond Earth: Implications for Freedom. Switzerland: Springer, pp. 139–147.Google Scholar
Rummel, J et al. (2012) Ethical considerations for planetary protection in space exploration: a workshop. Astrobiology 12, 1017–1023.Google Scholar
Sagan, C (2013) Cosmos (With a New Foreword by Neil DeGrasse Tyson). New York, USA: Ballantine Books.Google Scholar
Schwartz, JSJ (2013) On the moral permissibility of terraforming. Ethics & the Environment 18(2), 1–31.Google Scholar
Schwartz, JSJ (2014) Prioritizing scientific exploration: a comparison of the ethical justifications for space development and for space science. Space Policy 30, 202–208.Google Scholar
Schwartz, JSJ (2016a) Near-earth water sources: ethics and fairness. Advances in Space Research 58, 402–407.Google Scholar
Schwartz, JSJ (2016b) On the methodology of space ethics. In Schwartz, JSJ and Milligan, T (eds), The Ethics of Space Exploration. Switzerland: Springer, pp. 93–107.Google Scholar
Schwartz, JSJ (2017) Myth-free space advocacy Part II: the myth of the space frontier. Astropolitics 15, 167–184.Google Scholar
Schwartz, JSJ and Milligan, T (2017) Some ethical constraints on near-earth resource exploitation. In Ak-Ekabi, C, et al. (eds), Yearbook on Space Policy 2015. Vienna: Springer, pp. 227–239.Google Scholar
Smith, K (2016) The curious case of the martian microbes: Mariomania, intrinsic value, and the prime directive. In Schwartz, JSJ and Milligan, T (eds), The Ethics of Space Exploration. Switzerland: Springer, pp. 195–208.Google Scholar
Sullivan, W (2013) Planetocentric ethics: principles for exploring a solar system that may contain extraterrestrial microbial life. In Impey, C, Spitz, A and Stoeger, W (eds), Encountering Life in the Universe: Ethical Foundations and Social Implications of Astrobiology. Tucson, AZ, USA: University of Arizona Press, pp. 167–177.Google Scholar
Wilks, A (2016) Kantian Foundations for a Cosmocentric Ethic. In Schwartz, JSJ and Milligan, T (eds), The Ethics of Space Exploration. Switzerland: Springer, pp. 181–194.Google Scholar
Williamson, M (2006) Space: The Fragile Frontier. American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Reston, VA, USA.Google Scholar