WHAT ETHICS FRAMEWORK IS NEEDED TO DEVELOP SPACE?
And who cares?
The concept of space settlement is no longer science fiction — the future is here. But why are we concentrating resources on space, when we have so many challenges facing humanity here on earth?
Some might say because it’s already too late to save the earth, and that space is potentially our only hope.
One of the major environmental concerns of our time is the increasing consumption of the Earth’s resources to sustain our way of life. Space has been on the minds of many visionaries as a possible solution for this looming challenge. And here we stand, only 2–3 years from sending hundreds of people into space at one time. The final frontier is vividly within grasp.
And yet, with excitement and innovation comes the responsibility to ethics and a moral code.
How might we standardize a new precedent for how humanity operates, a precedent that would not only inform how we venture off-world into the future, but could also inform our own existence here on Earth?
On Wed, Sept 4th, 2019, thanks to Topher Wilkins (CEO of Opportunity Collaborative), and Lakshmi Karan (Co-Founder Future Frontiers Institute and Lunar University), I had the honor to engage in an extremely thought-provoking dialogue about what charter is needed before the rush begins.
THE MISSION: Enable responsible human expansion across the solar system, and improve life on Earth, by catalyzing talent, technology, and thought-leadership.
The room was stacked with fifteen brilliant brains — but what struck me, even more, was the power of the heart, consciousness, and mindfulness resonating throughout the room. I was also surprised and overwhelmingly grateful that a majority of the seats at the table were filled with dynamic, capable women. Re-designing a framework for a sustainable and conscious living will need more feminine instincts than the power structures to which we are currently bound. I imagine that being raised by an amazing single-parent mother, honed my sensitivities to the ongoing gender inequities that surround us daily, and on a NASA campus, I was not expecting to be in the minority as a white male.
We rounded the room and discussed our connections to space.
For the folks with careers in space science, I enjoyed hearing about their clarity around a deep love for space at an early age.
For the folks actively engaged in space science, I enjoyed hearing about their clarity around a deep love for space at an early age.
For me, growing up in Montana it centered around a more nostalgic approach. In times of strife or unsettled surroundings, the stars were my solace. “Out there, were new places to explore. An infinite horizon for infinite possibilities.” That, and of course Carl Sagan’s “We Humans Are Capable of Greatness.”
Bruce Pittman (Chief System Engineer at NASA Space Portal, Chief Space Officer of Future Frontiers Institute), opened the dialogue with a statement conveying how numerous astronauts have described the moment they turned back to look at their home.
“I had to travel to space to discover the earth.”
I remember astronaut Cady Coleman saying something similar when she spoke at HATCH.
Apropos — as it may soon become essential for earthly survival.
There’s a real risk that future space exploration and settlement will reflect the extractive, nationalistic and divisive systems currently in place. In order for space development to be a responsible, sustainable and extensible way, it must help solve critical issues on Earth and benefit all of humanity.
And so we have a very real opportunity and an obligation to help steward responsible space settlement and solve for the crucial challenges facing us. Imagine a blank canvas upon which we can lend perspective on ways to engineer new social, political and economic systems from scratch.
Written in 1967, The Outer Space Treaty represents the basic legal framework of international space law. Among its principles, it bars states party to the treaty from placing weapons of mass destruction in Earth orbit, installing them on the Moon or any other celestial body. It states that no country can own the moon or outer space… but it does not clarify that a company can not own.
We are in the age of the private sector leading the charge in the space exploration race.
BLUE ORIGIN
Jeff Bezos’ private aerospace company, Blue Origin was founded in 2000 and might be his true passion project based on the subject of the speech he delivered at his 1982 high school graduation. “Millions of people living and working in space and the heavy, energy-intensive industry is moved out into space and the earth is rezoned as residential and light industrial.” Blue Orbit’s website states “We are not in a race, and there will be many players in this human endeavor to go to space to benefit Earth. Blue’s part in this journey is building a road to space with our reusable launch vehicles, so our children can build the future.”
“You don’t get to choose your passion, it chooses you. I’ve known my passion was space travel since I was five. It’s a simple argument: Earth is the best planet, and now we face a choice. We can choose stasis, where we will have to cap population, and cap energy consumption, or we can move into space. The challenge for space currently is cost, which we are focused on lowering. My wish is to instigate entrepreneurial start-up companies doing amazing things in space.” ~ Jeff Bezos
Some may question whether this is possible. To this, Bezos quotes Wernher von Braun after the lunar landing:
“I’ve learned to use the term impossible with great caution.”
Blue Origin is only one of a handful of private rocket companies, including Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic. (Much like SpaceX, Blue Origin has focused much of its efforts on making spaceflight more accessible by reducing the cost of space travel, including reusing rockets for multiple launches.)
SPACE X
In 2001, Elon Musk conceptualized Mars Oasis, a project to land a miniature experimental greenhouse and grow plants on Mars, and in 2002 founded SpaceX. Musk has stated that one of his goals is to decrease the cost and improve the reliability of the access to space ultimately by a factor of ten, and to develop a rapidly reusable launch system. In 2024, Musk plans to fly four additional ships to Mars, including the first people. From there, additional missions would work to establish a Mars colony.
Musk’s advocacy for the long-term settlement of Mars goes far beyond what SpaceX projects to build successful colonization would ultimately involve many more economic actors — whether individuals, companies, or governments — to facilitate the growth of the human presence on Mars over many decades. Elon Musk and SpaceX envision astronauts initially living out of the spaceships while constructing a more permanent human settlement on the Red Planet. Musk has also shared a plan to launch a group of artists around the moon in just a few years and the possibility of using Starship for super-quick international flights via space.
VIRGIN GALACTIC
Virgin Galactic was founded in 2004 by Sir Richard Branson. Virgin Galactic also states that the answers to many of the challenges we face in sustaining life on our beautiful planet lie in making better use of space. “Throughout history, the urge to see what lies just over the horizon has led us to find new places to settle, helped us identify new resources, and taught us new skills to overcome complex challenges. As a global community, we will grow and evolve only through continuing to
explore the unknown. The exploration of space is the ultimate expression of the human desire to push boundaries and stands at the pinnacle of our species’ achievements. Not just for the ingenuity required, but for the fact that without it, modern life would be unrecognizable. Sending people to space has not only expanded our understanding of science but taught us amazing things about human ingenuity, physiology, and psychology. We are at the vanguard of a new industry determined to pioneer twenty-first-century spacecraft, which will open space to everybody — and change the world for good.”
NASA
NASA consults with and collaborates with all three of these private entities. In the room at NASA, we discussed the exponentially accelerating power of technology, as well as our current capital-focused society, social contracts, and the importance of approaching this opportunity with an evolved human development perspective — shifting from an ego-centric perspective to ethnocentric and cosmos-centric states of being. Moving from the limbic brain concerned about scarcity to a more collective “being” of human beings. Integral theory is Ken Wilber’s attempt to place a wide diversity of theories and thinkers into one single framework. It is portrayed as a “theory of everything” as it relates to the evolution of human consciousness and co-existence.
One member of the group, entrepreneur Christopher Ategeka (Founder/ CEO at UCOT), doubled down on this with a powerful story about his small village in Fort Portal, Uganda, emphasizing how neighbors relied on each other as part of the culture. “You don’t stay mad at your neighbor beyond today, because tomorrow you might need them. Turning ME upside down converts to WE. Here in America, the gold standard is independence from needing anyone else.” Chris runs a company called UCOT (Unintended Consequences of Technology). Needless, to say a real concern.
During a March 27, 2019 meeting with NASA managers and aerospace officials at the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center, Pence said the Trump administration was ordering NASA to send astronauts back to the moon by 2024. President Trump said “It marks a first step in returning American astronauts to the moon for the first time since 1972, for long-term exploration and use… to establish a foundation for an eventual mission to Mars, and perhaps someday, to many worlds beyond.”
There has never been a riper time to convene wise and empathic minds to engage on this topic, and as I sit there, I am reminded of the power of curation and convening, something I do throughout my life. While I’m pondering this, Avary Kent (Executive Director of Conveners.Org), says it out loud. “There has never been a more important time for convenings.” Amen.
The room that Topher of Opportunity Collaborative gathered was inspiring, and I was humbled to be in the mix. Lakshmi, a member of OC’s community had reached out to Topher to let him know about the work she is doing with Future Frontiers, an independent nonprofit housed at NASA’s Ames Research Center devoted to responsibly developing the first off-world human settlement on the moon ~ aka Lunar University.
What if there was the an International United University of Space?
There are many deeply existential perspectives to ponder, with the realization that space travel and eventual settlement is upon us. What will the charter be? The rules of engagement in the exploration and eventual extraction of resources from Space? How will this be written, by whom, and how do we know it can be enforced?
Think about how our constitution was written two hundred years ago, and the multitude of things that have changed in our world since then. Someone posed the question “Imagine if artists had written the constitution?”
“Space… the final frontier. These are the voyages in a continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.”
Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek is one who foresaw this moment in time, and crafted the “ethics” of space”
How can we create guidelines and systems that learn and adapt, as environments mature and evolve?
“Why are we even calling it a colonization? Every other country that was colonized, meant that the indigenous community was significantly marginalized or forced to borderline extinction,” asked Valerie Red-Horse Mohl, (Executive Director, Social Venture Circle), and a native American entrepreneur and human rights advocate.
It is indeed critical to look to previous examples of colonial communities, learn from the mistakes of humanity.
If we could start from scratch to build a civilization from scratch, which components would we want to re-invent (and how) and which do we want to keep?
How might we co-create a system that re-prioritizes hierarchy, borders, money, society, and more?
According to Future Frontiers, the global race to exert dominance and exploit space resources is underway, and by the 2030s there will be hundreds on the Moon. The concern is that there is not a holistic approach or framework of ethics being considered. The proposed solution is a “Lunar University” to consider and carefully co-create a re-invention of current constructs.
Potential mandates/benefits of “Lunar University”
- Co-create a unifying construct based on exploration and learning for common good.
- Advance all fields of study in partnership with governments, industry, and society
- To develop dual-use technology startups for key problems to benefit Earth and Space (eg: energy, water, food)
- Provide an unprecedented perspective on new worlds, the Earth and humanity
- Inspire and equip an inter-generational talent pipeline to sustain bold human endeavors (in space and on Earth)
- Explore new social and economic systems (eg: equity, governance, quality of life)
- Inspire and train the next generation to dream and be responsible stewards of the future.
In some conversations leading up to this, I was chatting with my friend and fellow HATCHer who works at JPL, designing creative for the missions that pitched to NASA. He’s always been a romantic about space exploration.
“It’s critical to have transparent discussions about the motivations driving this new push to the moon. It is extremely important to understand the motivations and build upon that potential future as a start.”
Some questions we pondered before the gathering included:
- What are the 3 to 5 distinct plausible futures for lunar culture in the next 20 years? Let’s focus on the most aspirational, reverse engineer the steps needed to achieve that, and get to work.
- What are the incentives for governments and private industries to expedite the exploration of the moon?
- How will the scale of their growth compare to the groups with other priorities?
- Will the needs of the dominant “employer” drive the scale and makeup of the population? How will these factors be regulated, if at all?
- Will the moon become a work camp? Similar to a fracking camp or living on an oil rig?
- How can we allow for the possibility of cultural and socioeconomic equity? Does that even matter? If so, why?
- Can we imagine other futures for the moon?
- If there was a Lunar University, beyond research into new fields only possible on the moon, what will students that travel to the moon does for fun? What elements of culture will they bring with them from Earth?
- What new and beautiful cultural mashups will the lunar community cultivate?
Jessy Kate Schingler (Managing Governance at Non-profit Spaceship & co-founder of The Embassy Network), used to work at Ames, and still works in the private space sector and collaborates with NASA. She pointed out a specific part of the original space treaty:
“The exploration and use of outer space, including the Moon and other Celestial Bodies, shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries, irrespective of their degree of economic or scientific development, and shall be the province of all mankind.”
That is a very noble and impactful concept. Can we as humans guide that intention to manifestation?
On the plane ride home, while writing this, I was listening to music, and this quote was overlaid on the track:
Yesterday was history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift.
That is why they call it the present.
Make the most of living our full personal potential today. A beautiful reminder.
|| Watch: Carl Sagan’s “We Humans Are Capable Of Greatness”
In closing this pondering, I want to thank the amazing Christine Lai as well as Raman Frey (both conveners themselves), for introducing me to a kindred spirit and thoughtful curator and community builder, Topher Wilkins.
Present was:
Topher Wilkins (CEO of Opportunity Collaboration and Founder of Conveners.org), Lakshmi Karan (Co-Founder Future Frontiers Institute), Bruce Pittman (Chief System Engineer at NASA Space Portal, Chief Space Officer of Future Frontiers Institute), Avary Kent (Executive Director of Conveners.Org), Bulbul Gupta (Founding Advisor, Socos Labs), Chelsea Robinson (Chief of Staff for NewFoundation.Space), Kate Byrne and President of the Board for UN Women, the United Nations entity for gender equality and the empowerment of women, and President of Intentional Media), Philip Kao (Co-founder at Appleseed), Christopher Ategeka (Founder/ CEO at UCOT), Elizabeth Burger (Executive & Operations Associate at Social Venture Circle), Jessy Kate Schingler (Managing Governance at Non-profit Spaceship & co-founder of The Embassy Network), Katie Drasser, (Managing Director Aspen Global Innovators Group), Neetal Parekh (Convener of Impactathon and Founder of Innov8social), Valerie Red-Horse Mohl, (Executive Director, Social Venture Circle), Steve Zornetzer (Vice-Chair, Governing Board of Directors at Ice911 Research and retired Associate Center Director for Research and Technology Ames Research Center), and me — Yarrow Kraner, founder of HATCH & H360, a collaboration acceleration platform to power networks and a “network of networks”).
#OpportunityCollaborative, #Conveners, #HATCHaBetterWorld
#NASA, #SpaceExploration, #VirginGalactic, #SpaceX, #BlueOrigin, #FutureFriontiers, #LunarUniversity
