EDMONTON — As private companies like SpaceX, Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin join the space race, an international team of experts — including University of Alberta professor Timothy Caulfield — say governing rules are needed to ensure research on commercial space flights is safe, responsible and inclusive.
Caulfield is co-author of a paper called “Ethically cleared to launch? Rules are needed for human research in commercial spaceflight,” published in the journal Science.
While NASA and other publicly sponsored research is governed by policies and national framework, there is no clear structure for privately funded research with civilians on commercial space vehicles, which has Caulfield and the authors asking: “what are the rules for someone who’s involved in a private company going to space?”
“To this day, only about 650 human beings have ever been in space,” says Caulfield, the Canada Research Chair in Health Law and Policy. “In the next 10 to 20 years, there will be thousands of people going into space — many of them civilians — largely driven by commercial companies.”
One of the main concerns raised by the authors is that research conducted on Earth may pose “substantially increased risk” when conducted in space. Any such risk, they say, needs to be minimized and carefully weighed against its potential benefits to society.
The group of researchers met late last year to generate the series of guiding principles in the absence of clear regulation. The recommendations in their paper highlight four basic principles: social responsibility of research participants, scientific excellence in gathering research data, proportionality in balancing risks of spaceflight, and global stewardship in diverse participation.
The authors propose adopting existing terrestrial research practices and policies — including informed consent, data protection and steps to minimize health risks to participants — along with those that have long guided government-sponsored space exploration.
The quality of the research is also key. Unlike some terrestrial research, there may be limited opportunities for experiments in space. So it’s crucial to get it right the first time. There should also be clear rules about sharing data acquired in commercial space research, write the paper’s authors.
Enforcing best practices can be complicated. The upcoming decommissioning of the International Space Station leaves it unclear whether ethical guidelines in international agreements such as the UN's Outer Space Treaty will apply to human research sponsored by commercial firms.
More information can be found here. To speak with Timothy Caulfield, please contact: Sarah Vernon | University of Alberta communications associate | svernon@ualberta.ca