Sara Langston has a new paper out. I haven’t read it yet, but it looks interesting (I may not agree with it entirely, but really don’t know).
2 thoughts on “Risk And Ethics In Commercial Spaceflight”
Comments are closed.
Sara Langston has a new paper out. I haven’t read it yet, but it looks interesting (I may not agree with it entirely, but really don’t know).
Comments are closed.
This part jumped out for me. Concerning regulations.
“royal decrees from the courts of Europe ushered in standardization for maritime maps, rutters (sailor’s handbooks), navigational devices, and drilling practices as a mechanism to effectuate imperial control through safe and reliable transoceanic transit.46 Similarly, when railroad companies began springing up around the world in the 1840s, most rail lines eventually took to adopting the British uniform track gauge.47 The railroads were in fact the slowest industry to standardize (it took over 60 years) and suffered high accident rates, but when standards and correlating regulations finally developed, it resulted in increased safety, stability, efficiency, and ease of maintenance along with public and economic benefit.48 By the time the aviation industry emerged as a viable transportation modality, it was able to capitalize on prior experience gleaned from the history of the railroads and shipping industry. Within a decade of commercial activity, lawmakers were able to identify the outstanding risks and issues and institute federal regulations and standards to govern airworthiness certification, aviation activities, and pilot medical fitness.49
A historical survey of the development of the transportation industry reveals the benefits of routine and standardization concerning technical hardware and equipment, navigational systems, document keeping, signaling and communication protocols, and systematic training, while still allowing for flexible decision-making on the ground to account for circumstantial emergencies. Cumulatively, each branch of common carriage developed an equivalent of industry Best Practices, sometimes even before federal regulation unified common carriage under a national umbrella of transportation systems. History thus informs us (objectively) that regulatory standardization has the ability to greatly impact safety, mobility, expediency, and economic profit.
Subjectively, however, commercial space transportation has not yet reached a level where standardization may be feasible or desirable across the board for technology and operations—notwithstanding, the licensing procedures are standardized. The FAA’s recognition that differing destinations, purposes, and architectures may require different risk levels makes this evident. The Code of Federal Regulations thus only stipulates the essential ”
I agree there will be a need in the future, especially for how it allowed air travel to take off. If they could do it in a way that doesn’t strangle the baby in the crib then I will be for it.
Interesting issues raised, but the position taken appears to be that further study is warranted. The last line:
“Involving ethics experts in ongoing discussions and formulation of procedures (e.g., as NASA and CNES do) can fundamentally provide valuable guidance for commercial entities and the general public moving forward.”