Human Enhancements for Space Missions

Human Enhancements for Space Missions
Author: Konrad Szocik
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 270
Release: 2020-10-04
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9783030420352

This book presents a collection of chapters, which address various contexts and challenges of the idea of human enhancement for the purposes of human space missions. The authors discuss pros and cons of mostly biological enhancement of human astronauts operating in hostile space environments, but also ethical and theological aspects are addressed. In contrast to the idea and program of human enhancement on Earth, human enhancement in space is considered a serious and necessary option. This book aims at scholars in the following fields: ethics and philosophy, space policy, public policy, as well as biologists and psychologists.

Human Enhancements for Space Missions

Human Enhancements for Space Missions
Author: Konrad Szocik
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2020-08-07
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3030420361

This book presents a collection of chapters, which address various contexts and challenges of the idea of human enhancement for the purposes of human space missions. The authors discuss pros and cons of mostly biological enhancement of human astronauts operating in hostile space environments, but also ethical and theological aspects are addressed. In contrast to the idea and program of human enhancement on Earth, human enhancement in space is considered a serious and necessary option. This book aims at scholars in the following fields: ethics and philosophy, space policy, public policy, as well as biologists and psychologists.

Human Spaceflight

Human Spaceflight
Author: Wiley J. Larson
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies
Total Pages: 1072
Release: 2000
Genre: Science
ISBN:

"Human spaceflight: mission analysis and design" is for you if you manage, design, or operate systems for human spaceflight! It provides end-to-end coverage of designing human space systems for Earth, Moon, and Mars. If you are like many others, this will become the dog-eared book that is always on your desk -and used. The book includes over 800 rules of thumb and sanity checks that will enable you to identify key issues and errors early in the design processes. This book was written by group of 67 professional engineers, managers, and educators from industry, government, and academia that collectively share over 600 years of space-related experience! The team from the United States, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and Russia worked for four-and-one-half years to capture industry and government best practices and lessons-learned from industry and government in an effort to baseline global conceptual design experience for human spaceflight. "Human spaceflight: mission analysis and design" provides a much-needed big-picture perspective that can be used by managers, engineers and students to integrate the myriad of elements associated with human spaceflight.

The Future of Human Space Exploration

The Future of Human Space Exploration
Author: Giovanni Bignami
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2016-07-11
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9781137526571

For several decades it has been widely accepted that human space exploration is the exclusive domain of government agencies. The cost of performing such missions, estimated in multiple reports to amount to hundreds of billions dollars over decades, was far beyond what private entities could afford. That arrangement seems to be changing. Buoyed by the success of its program to develop commercial cargo capabilities to support the International Space Station, NASA is becoming increasingly open to working with the private sector in its human space exploration plans. The new private-public partnership will make 'planet hopping' feasible. This book analyses the move towards planet hopping, which sees human outposts moving across the planetary dimensions, from the Moon to Near-Earth Asteroids and Mars. It critically assesses the intention to exploit space resources and how successful these missions will be for humanity. This insightful and accessible book will be of great interest to scholars and students of space policy and politics, international studies, and science and technology studies.

The History of Human Space Flight

The History of Human Space Flight
Author: Ted Spitzmiller
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Total Pages: 693
Release: 2017-02-21
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0813059704

Military Writers Society of America Awards, Gold Medal for History Highlighting men and women across the globe who have dedicated themselves to pushing the limits of space exploration, this book surveys the programs, technological advancements, medical equipment, and automated systems that have made space travel possible. Beginning with the invention of balloons that lifted early explorers into the stratosphere, Ted Spitzmiller describes how humans first came to employ lifting gasses such as hydrogen and helium. He traces the influence of science fiction writers on the development of rocket science, looks at the role of rocket societies in the early twentieth century, and discusses the use of rockets in World War II warfare. Spitzmiller considers the engineering and space medicine advances that finally enabled humans to fly beyond the earth's atmosphere during the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union. He recreates the excitement felt around the world as Yuri Gagarin and John Glenn completed their first orbital flights. He recounts triumphs and tragedies, such as Neil Armstrong's "one small step" and the Challenger and Columbia disasters. The story continues with the development of the International Space Station, NASA's interest in asteroids and Mars, and the emergence of China as a major player in the space arena. Spitzmiller shows the impact of space flight on human history and speculates on the future of exploration beyond our current understandings of physics and the known boundaries of time and space.

Humans in Space

Humans in Space
Author: Nick Kanas
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 154
Release: 2015-06-09
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 3319188690

Awarded the 2016 International Academy of Astronautics Life Science Book Award! Using anecdotal reports from astronauts and cosmonauts, and the results from studies conducted in space analog environments on Earth and in the actual space environment, this book broadly reviews the various psychosocial issues that affect space travelers. Unlike other books that are more technical in format, this text is targeted for the general public. With the advent of space tourism and the increasing involvement of private enterprise in space, there is now a need to explore the impact of space missions on the human psyche and on the interpersonal relationships of the crewmembers. Separate chapters of the book deal with psychosocial stressors in space and in space analog environments; psychological, psychiatric, interpersonal, and cultural issues pertaining to space missions; positive growth-enhancing aspects of space travel; the crew-ground interaction; space tourism; countermeasures for dealing with space; and unique aspects of a trip to Mars, the outer solar system, and interstellar travel.

The Overview Effect

The Overview Effect
Author: Frank White
Publisher: AIAA
Total Pages: 340
Release: 1998
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 9781563472602

Using interviews with and writings by astronauts and cosmonauts, discusses how viewing the Earth from space and from the moon affect space explorers' perceptions of the world and humanity, and how those changes are likewise felt in contemporary society. The author views space exploration and eventual colonization as an inevitable step in the evolution of human society and consciousness, one which offers new perspectives on the problems facing us down here on Earth. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The Bioethics of Space Exploration

The Bioethics of Space Exploration
Author: Konrad Szocik
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 193
Release: 2023-06-13
Genre: Astronauts
ISBN: 0197628478

"Human exploration of space contains many ethical challenges. Future long-term space missions will generate specific problems and place new demands on humanity. One of them is the concept of human enhancement, primarily through gene editing, for the implementation of long-term space missions. In this book, I hypothesize that large-scale application of human enhancement may be necessary to enable space exploration and exploitation. The book discusses the many arguments for and against human genetic modification for space missions. It also considers the most controversial type of modification, germline gene editing. In the book I present many arguments in favor of applying even radical and considered controversial forms of human enhancements today. The book shows that the environment of future space missions is a unique and different ethical environment from Earth's and requires a modified bioethical approach. The bioethics of space missions should be syncretic, issue-driven, and highly dependent on the purpose of space missions. In the book, I point out the importance of discussing future scenarios of human development. Space bioethics is presented as part of futures studies. The book considers futures of humanity in space that are possible, probable, preferable, but also dystopian. The aim of these considerations is to prevent the development of these worst-case scenarios. The book suggests that we should look to the development of biomedicine with greater optimism and hope. Human enhancement via gene editing for space missions is presented as a pragmatic tool rooted in the principle of well-being"--