Political, moral, and security challenges of space colonization

Abstract

Space colonization, the goal of establishing permanent and self-sustaining human habitats beyond Earth, is not only a technological challenge: Colonizing space will confront humankind with a set of political, moral, and security challenges. If the outcomes of those challenges are negative, space colonization will either fail completely (political challenges), or we will commit potentially immense moral damage (moral challenges), or we will expose humankind to enormous security risks (security challenges). In order to minimize these risks, we need to start crafting policy blueprints today that are aimed at steering space colonization in a desirable direction 3 Space colonization ZIPAR Discussion Paper Series