Space Exploration: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Understanding Norms and Ethics in Space

Space exploration is a multifaceted topic, traversing diverse disciplines from physics and engineering to biology, philosophy and law. Space is acknowledged as a physical environment, a tool and a concept. As a fundamental idea, outer space also reflects the inner reaches and potential of human imagination, innovation, and possibility. It reveals itself on the individual level as well as in myth, culture, policy and law. Space exploration therefore requires multidisciplinary perspectives and contributions. While space technologies (e.g., rockets, launches and satellites) are often publicized in the media as celebrated activities, equally important to space exploration are the sciences: astronomy, planetary science, astrobiology and astrochemistry, among others. Likewise, space policy serves to provide a grand vision while space law solidifies those values to enact a framework for regulating actors and activities in space. Ethics, further serves as a lynchpin, a foundation for understanding why we care to explore the cosmos and prudence in foreseeing the implications of our actions. Taken together, these disciplines explore various aspects of the same pertinent questions: why should we care about space? as well as, how do we get there and…what then?