Protecting and expanding the richness and diversity of life, an ethic for astrobiology research and space exploration

Randolph, Richard O.; McKay, Christopher P.

doi:10.1017/s1473550413000311

Cited by 22 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 16 publications

(20 reference statements)

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“…Planetary protection will also break down, by the way, once the doors of a manned spaceship opens on Mars (Campion 2016). -Independently evolved life constitutes a value per se (Randolph and McKay 2014). This argument is actually closely related to core motivation of the Genesis project, namely that life as such is valuable.…”

Section: Ethics and Planetary Protectionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Developing ecospheres on transiently habitable planets: the genesis project

Gros

2016

Astrophys Space Sci

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It is often presumed, that life evolves relatively fast on planets with clement conditions, at least in its basic forms, and that extended periods of habitability are subsequently needed for the evolution of higher life forms. Many planets are however expected to be only transiently habitable. On a large set of otherwise suitable planets life will therefore just not have the time to develop on its own to a complexity level as it did arise on earth with the cambrian explosion. The equivalent of a cambrian explosion may however have the chance to unfold on transiently habitable planets if it would be possible to fast forward evolution by 3-4 billion years (with respect to terrestrial timescales). We argue here, that this is indeed possible when seeding the candidate planet with the microbial lifeforms, bacteria and unicellular eukaryotes alike, characterizing earth before the cambrian explosion. An interstellar mission of this kind, denoted the 'Genesis project', could be carried out by a relatively low-cost robotic microcraft equipped with a on-board gene laboratory for the in situ synthesis of the microbes.We review here our current understanding of the processes determining the timescales shaping the geo-evolution of an earth-like planet, the prospect of finding Genesis candidate planets and selected issues regarding the mission layout. Discussing the ethical aspects connected with a Genesis mission, which would be expressively not for human benefit, we will also touch the risk that a biosphere incompatibility may arise in the wake of an eventual manned exploration of a second earth.

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Section: Ethics and Planetary Protectionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Developing ecospheres on transiently habitable planets: the genesis project

Gros

2016

Astrophys Space Sci

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“…However, if the Martian biochemistry indicates a second genesis of life, representing a separate origin of life, then the ethical implications of interacting with that life become paramount. 13 In either case we may eventually and carefully return a sample to Earth for further study.…”

Section: Second Lifementioning

confidence: 99%

Prerequisites to Human Activity on Mars: Scientific and Ethical Aspects

McKay¹

2019

Theology and Science

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Humans want to go to Mars now. This entails many difficult but solvable challenges. However, human activity on Mars depends on the answers to three fundamental questions: (1) Is there life on Mars, does that life represent at second genesis of life? (2) Can Earth life, and humans in particular, adapt to the Martian gravity of 0.38 g, and will human generations on Mars speciate from humans on Earth? (3) Is there enough carbon, nitrogen, and water on Mars to create a global habitable environment? These answers must be determined on Mars and will decide the scope of human activities.

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“…It is ultimately a reference point that we can use not to recreate the world as if "ex nihilo," but rather from which we can understand ourselves as radically immanent, radically interrelated, and radically multiple. Indeed, as Randolph and McKay argue, developing an ethics for astrobiology might help us to "protect and expand the richness and diversity of life" here on planet Earth as well ( [18], p. 33). Just as new types of "religious" and "ethical" understanding of ourselves ought to be derived out of an awareness of our planetary identity, so too new "scientific" and "technological" understandings ought to follow from this.…”

Section: Immanent Transcendence: the Planetary Outside/beyondmentioning

confidence: 99%

Incarnating the Unknown: Planetary Technologies for a Planetary Community

Bauman¹

2017

Religions

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This article suggests that current technological development is based upon outdated ways of understanding human beings as "exceptional" to the rest of the natural world. As such, these technologies help serve to reify certain human lives at the expense of others. I argue that such exceptionalism depends upon an understanding of transcendence that is totally other. Using examples such as "Earthrise" and the UN's International Treaty on Outer Space, I argue that an immanent understanding of "the other" renegotiates how we understand our embeddedness within the rest of the evolving planetary community. As part of renegotiating a planetary anthropology, we must also begin rethinking technologies as for the planet (not just for humans).

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Protecting and expanding the richness and diversity of life, an ethic for astrobiology research and space exploration

Cited by 22 publications

References 16 publications

Developing ecospheres on transiently habitable planets: the genesis project

Developing ecospheres on transiently habitable planets: the genesis project

Prerequisites to Human Activity on Mars: Scientific and Ethical Aspects

Incarnating the Unknown: Planetary Technologies for a Planetary Community

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