The Ethical Use of Outer Space - Ethical Engineering for International Development and Environmental Sustainability - page 124

policy and acknowledging a) these are not always mutually compatible and b) what
priority ought to be accorded to the various moral values'.
So, what of the 'ethical use' of space - what are the moral values? A moral
approach to something generally means a consideration of what ought to be, rather
than what actually is. After all, we might not need to consider what we ought to do
if we always did it as a matter of course. In order to defi ne an ethical approach, we
will need to adopt some normative moral principles in order to assess or justify
particular courses of action and/or behaviour. What we are actually discussing then
is the development of a set of generally agreed principles that will ensure that outer
space is used in the best possible way for the benefi t of the global community.
In 1998 UNESCO set up a World Commission on the Ethics of Scientifi c
Knowledge and Technology (COMEST) and established a Joint Working Group on
'the Ethics of Outer Space'; a joint report with ESA was issued in 2000. 18 The report
examined the ethical problems posed by the utilisation of outer space and discussed
topics such as manned space fl ight, the search for life in space, the return of samples
from other celestial bodies, space debris, Earth monitoring and the public image of
space exploration. According to Antonio Rodotà at ESA:
Ethics is a fundamental aspect of human society. For those who are involved in space activi-
ties, ignoring this debate is not an option… At the European Space Agency we are commit-
ted to ensuring that the ethics of space science and technology will be considered in our
decisions and in our programmes. 19
The report hardly mentioned the militarisation of space and was concerned
mainly with how the non-military sector should organise to ensure the ethical use of
space, but it does point out that 'space activities need a precise juridical framework,
underpinned by an ethic defi ned and then clearly accepted by all participants'. It
envisaged space on several different levels:
• As an area which raises ethical questions.
• As part of the shared heritage of humankind.
• As a need to limit the pollution created by space activities.
• As a perception to manage risks and develop a space culture based on
mediation.
As 'globalisation' progresses, we need to move to a greater awareness of our
collective responsibilities and be clear about the consequences of our actions in an
ethical way. The criteria used for making decisions cannot be just economic but
should be extended to embrace fundamental commitments to human rights and free-
doms and to the cultural identity of each nation. This is particularly the case for
space technology, because of the considerable imbalances its use can generate in
relations between countries, as well as between the private sector and the public at
large. Access to space programmes requires substantial resources - costs put them
18 The report of the Working Group was presented in July 2000 by Professor Alain Pompidou,
former member of the European Parliament, and Antonio Rodotà, ESA's director general, can be
downloaded from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001220/122048e.pdf
19 As quoted in the ESA press release: http://www.esa.int/For_Media/Press_Releases/The_ethics_