The research subject of ethics as a global priority relates to an outstanding topic of the interactions between society, science and technology, namely, the research projects on the cooperation between humans and machines in space, during space travel, through space exploration. The scientific question focuses on the ethical problems of manned space missions, which must serve the benefit of all humanity. Further questions are the following: “How drastic are the medical side effects in space travel due to weightlessness and how should they be treated?” “Is space research better carried out by humans or machines?” “How space law should be taken into account?”
Is space exploration better done by humans or machines? While bold entrepreneurs and non-profit organisations propose the colonisation of Mars, a cautious argumentation is expressed by Microsoft and MIT and slower-paced approaches are proposed. The disagreements point out problems of space resiliency and space economy. Simultaneously, experimental projects and competitions take place on the thematic of habitat on Mars.
A highly important field of debates relates to space policy and law. The Outer Space Treaty of the United Nations declares the peaceful and internationally reciprocal purposes of space exploration, while forbids military and nationalistic colonisation. Safety and security through space exploration is also considered as a serious aspect of space legislation, as conceived by the International Institute of Space Law and the European Centre for Space Law. The future of space exploration should focus on the development of internationally governed projects that promote the benefit of all mankind, such as research on health issues in space.
In the past, there had never been a group of humans born on earth, who travelled and settled in space. The launching of Salyut (1971), Skylab (1973), Mir (1986), International Space Station (1998) and Tiangong (2011) hosted the first projects of this kind. Since 2001, Russian rockets have brought several private tourists to the International Space Station. In March 2019, NASA announced that the International Space Station will be open to private astronauts by next year.
The most drastic medical effects in space flight are caused by weightlessness: space adaptation syndrome (nausea, motion sickness and sensory disorientation), weakened immune defences, loss of bone mass, loss of muscle mass, reduction of the amount of blood in the body and space anemia. Dangerous effects to human health are produced also by the inertial forces during liftoff and reentry, by ionising radiation, absence of day and night, and close environment.
The disasters of the space shuttles Challenger (1986) and Columbia (2003) had caused significant worries to the agents of space exploration. Furthermore, Stephen Hawking warned us that aliens who would have spent their natural resources, could represent a dangerous threat during space exploration. The isotropic appearance of the visible universe at sufficiently large distances shows that the expectation of extraterrestrial life is reasonable.
Human-machine interaction in space
Technological innovations, such as the so-called ambient intelligence systems, produce environments that assist the interaction and collaboration between human and machine system-level functions:
“the first artificially intelligent robot in space, named Cimon, arrived at the International Space Station on July 2, 2018. It uses IBM’s famous Watson system and can communicate with people, knowing whom it’s talking to due to facial-recognition software. Cimon’s purpose is to assist astronaut Alexander Gerst in several investigations by accessing a large amount of relevant information, including photos and videos. Cimon is smart enough to deal with questions beyond the investigations that Gerst might have. Cimon is an experiment of human-machine interaction and collaboration in space with the aim of eventually helping astronauts repair damaged spacecraft systems or treating sick crew members” (“AIs Will Have to Be Constrained by Moral Standards and Ethics; Chance That Robots Want to Rise Up Is as Slim as That They Want to Drink Booze or Take Drugs,” 2018).
Considerations for space exploration tend to compare human with machine advantages according system-level functions. Sensitivity to context, detection, perception, sensitivity and adaptability to change, judgement, induction, improvisation and long-term memory function better in humans than machines. Speed, power, computation, replication, simultaneous operations and short-term memory function better in machines than humans.
The resources of the proposed research project are currently the following:
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Resources
- NASA Science Mission Directorate
- December 11, 2017, “Presidential Memorandum on Reinvigorating America’s Human Space Exploration Program”
- United Nations Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space
- Secure World Foundation
- Payne Institute
- Center for Space Resources
- Mineral and Energy Economics program
- Colorado School of Mines
- Hague International Space Resources Governance Working Group
- Space Resources Roundtable
- Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS)
- Deep Space Industries
- ConsenSys
- PTScientists in Germany
- Asteroid Mining Corporation in the United Kingdom
- IDA Science and Technology Policy Institute
- AI Magazine
- Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
- SIGCHI and SIGART, in cooperation with AAAI (American Association for Artificial Intelligence) and with the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
- IEEE Robotics and Automation Society and the IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society
- Idaho National Laboratory (INL)
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
- Navy Center for Applied Research in Artificial Intelligence at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL)
- Autonomous Systems Laboratory at NRL
- Nissan Cambridge Basic Research
- European Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ECAI 2006)
- IBM’s famous Watson system
Milestones 
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