Beyond Earth (ATWG) - Appendix A - Research Agenda for the Future of Humans in Space

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APPENDIX "A"

Research Agenda for the Future of Humans in Space

One of the goals throughout the development of Beyond Earth: The Future of Humans in Space has been to identify research needed to solve the multiple challenges linked to the permanent move of humans to space. Here we consolidate those from our authors and add other questions and hypotheses from professionals throughout the global space community.

Research questions capture subjects where there are unknowns or partial answers that require analysis. Hypotheses are different. They provide expectations for future outcomes. Hypotheses have four possible outcomes: 1) future events and research may validate them; 2) prove them to be invalid; 3) discover some mix of truth in the projection; or 4) insufficient evidence will be found to state any findings or conclusions.

This Appendix "A" summarizes the research questions and hypotheses generated throughout the development of Beyond Earth. They cover a large array of science, engineering, management , governance, policy and human factors subjects. Leadership of the Aerospace Technology Working Group (ATWG.org) is already using this list to plan future encouragement of research and publications. It is only an illustrative set of relevant research questions and hypotheses. Your additions to this list will be welcomed by ATWG leadership.

Beyond that NASA, university educators, the International Space University at Strasburg, France, space foundations and associations and national governments throughout the world will find in this list valuable ideas and concepts for planning. Research questions and hypotheses are listed in alphabetical category order.

  • Aerospace Technology Working Group (ATWG)
  • Bacteria
  • Breakthroughs
  • Challenge
  • Children Today - Tomorrow's Space People
  • Debris in Space
  • Education
  • Energy
  • Evolution
  • Genetics
  • Global Warming
  • Governance
  • Gravity and Humans in Space
  • Intelligence
  • International Cooperation
  • Law
  • Leadership
  • Military in Space
  • Moon
  • Music and Arts
  • New Frontier
  • Popular Support for Space
  • Quality Sciences and Space Sciences
  • Risk, Safety, Reliability
  • Self Destruction
  • Spaceflight Systems
  • Space Trips for Peace
  • Win-Win Global Consciousness
  • X-Prizes


1. Aerospace Technology Working Group (ATWG)

  • Hypothesis. ATWG's commitment will help transform the space programs of every space faring nation into an Earth/space movement that integrates permanent settlements with personal adventure, science, commerce, ecology, and holistic well being for everyone and everything on the Earth.

Dr. Ken Cox and the Authors of Beyond Earth: The Future of Humans in Space


2. Bacteria'

  • Hypothesis. Bacteria will be inside the human settlement bubble in space. These bacteria will be used for recycling, for the production of new materials from substances to be brought from the external environment, for supporting the life of other organisms, and to keep our immune system in shape and all other functions bacteria do to sustain life on Earth.

Dr. Eshel Ben-Jacob, Chapter 13


3. Breakthroughs

  • Hypothesis. A breakthrough is not a function of what is known, but a function of the domains in which it is known. We can know the future of space in a domain of ideas and science, we can know it in a domain of experience and action and we can know it in a domain of adventure, risk and myth. All those domains will be needed for the major human move to space.

Dr. Charles E. Smith, Chapter 8


4. Challenge

  • Research Question. How to solve the greatest challenges of human life which are the mysteries of the universe that tempt us from without, but also the mysteries of ourselves that lie within the human consciousness, human knowledge, and human compassion. Langdon Morris, Chapter 2 * Research Question. How can human civilization best integrate our global systems of government, business, academia, and faith to ensure human survival and the generation of knowledge, prosperity and spiritual well being across our solar system over the next twenty generations?

Martin Schwab, Chapters 3 and 34.


5. Children Today - Tomorrow's Space People

  • Research Question. A harsh evaluation by today's youth is that they do not feel they have a part in the planning process for opening the space frontier. How should we go about giving them a voice and involving them in the planning process now? * Research Question. How can we humans avoid fouling up places in space like the aliens did in THE WUMP WORLD?
  • THE WUMP WORLD, Bill Peet, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1970 and students in the Kids to Space survey. * Research Question. Is a child's sense of wonder a valuable asset in our quest for answers about the Universe?

Lonnie Schorer, Chapter 18

  • Research Question: Would it be feasible to utilize Satellite Space Technology to create Virtual Field Trips for kids as a way to stimulate interest in Space Technology for schoolchildren everywhere in the world? We already have the technology to do this in Orbital Space, on the Moon, and on Mars.

Dr. Elliott Maynard, President, Arcos Cielos Research Center

  • Research Question: In an effort to integrate children into the vast expanse of knowledge that has been generated since the golden age of human space pioneering in the 1960s, how can more experienced generations best share the "great unknowns" of deep space pioneering with more newly arrived generations?

Martin Schwab, Chapters 3 and 34.


6. Debris in Space

  • Research Question. The accumulation of debris in space is an increasing problem with potential damage to space operations. How can international research and specific plans be created to deal with this problem?

Dr. Feng Hsu, Dr. Paul Werbos and Martin Schwab, Beyond Earth authors.


7. Education

  • Research Question. What private - public education and human capital development model can successfully integrate the international resources and interest of government, industry, and academe that will be involved with the future space enterprise?
  • Research Question. What emerging telecommunications and information system technologies will transform space-related education and human capital development worldwide?
  • Research Question. What economic and financial structure will be needed to support and sustain the private - public education and human capital development model developed for the future space enterprise?

Dr. Michael J. Wiskerchen, Chapter 15


8. Energy

  • Hypothesis. The permanent solution to earth's energy needs has begun with the biofuels conversion for vehicles and will be finally resolved by a mix of solar energy from space with alternatives-to-oil-based energy sources on earth.

Paul Werbos, Howard Bloom, Martin Schwab, Feng Hsu, Ken Cox, and Bob Krone

9. Evolution

  • Hypothesis. Some kind of movement of humanity into space is inevitable. But this great step is likely to be far more successful and meaningful if it is guided and energized by awareness of the wider evolutionary trajectories that will eventually determine the significance of humanity in the universe.

John Stewart, Chapter 22

10. Genetics

  • Research Question. How to determine and accomplish needed human genetic intervention or manipulation to insure the survival of humankind off earth?

Lynn Harper, Chapter 14 and George S. Robinson, Chapter 6.

11. Global Warming

  • Hypothesis. The world has seven years to take vital decisions and implement measures to curb greenhouse gas emissions or it could be too late.

Primer Minister Tony Blair, London, 7 February 2006

12. Governance

  • Research Question. What can be learned from historic shifts o epochs?
  • Research Question. What widespread wishful thinking hinders realistic steps towards human settlement of space, such as trust that good will, civil society and business interests can be relied upon to do most of the job.
  • Research Question. What are the most critical characteristics of governance essential for human settlement of space?
  • Research Question. How can those critical characteristics be realistically realized?
  • Research Question. What can be done to prepare the ground for moving humanity beyond earth before a suitable governance system emerges? Professor Yehezkel Dror, Chapter 5

13. Gravity and Humans in Space

  • Research Question. How will the brain and its psychology adapt to microgravity and hypergravity?

Dr. Sherry E. Bell and Dr. Dawn L. Strongin, Chapter 11

14. Intelligence

  • Research Question. Development of an information theory that is extendable to fantomark-coded messages and streaks would be crucial, as it would facilitate the invention of superior intelligent artifacts; could hold a key to communication with extraterrestrial modes of intelligence; and eventually help us understand our cosmic ancestry and the relationship between implicate and explicate orders, as envisioned by David Bohm.

Dr. Joel Isaacson, Chapter 24

15. International Cooperation

  • Research Question. What aspects of the human psyche in general pose the greatest problems for creating a successful worldwide society based on mutual responsibility, enthusiasm, cooperation, and commitment to the general welfare of all participants, and how do we successfully prevent them from continuing to prevent a fully functional worldwide society capable of cooperative existence?
  • Research Question. How can we stop the destruction of war that has been draining the world and all people of its resources for millennia so that we can collaborate to achieve those things we naturally desire as part of our heritage in the Cosmos?
  • Research Question. How do we deal with imminent earth climatic changes which could devastate a significant portion of its land and populations of humans and wildlife so that we can fulfil our future heritage in a cooperative collaboration of international peace?

Michael Hannon, Chapter 10

16.

  • Research Question. What is the most effective formulation of a transnational public and/or private corporation business entity to exercise independence and sovereignty to identify, recover, and commercially exploit space resources for the benefit of all humankind?
  • Research Question. How to Formulate a legal operating relationship between international/transglobal military entities (administration/protection) and private entrepreneurs operating in space? This might be an appropriate variation of the English charters of the late sixteenth century (e.g. Virginia Company, Hudson Bay Company or East India Company).
  • Research Question. How to formulate curricula for engineering students and graduate science students that will teach them routine and full involvement with global space law and economics, such as that being developed at the Georgia Tech engineering department?
  • Research Question. How to establish a globally effective legal infrastructure to encourage and protect the process of obtaining "informed public consent" for all space activities that are designed to allow broad humankind interaction or interference with extraterrestrial life, consistent with applicable principles of metalaw?
  • Research Question. How to create a new jurisprudence allowing independent personhood and legal accountability of transhumans, telepresences, and advanced artificially intelligent biorobotics functioning in near and deep space?

Dr. George S. Robinson, Chapter 6

17. Leadership

  • Research Question. How do we train people to balance order, control and results focus in a context of what's good for humanity, locally and at large?

Dr. Charles E. Smith, Chapter 8

18. Militaries in Space

  • Research Question. What missions in outer space (besides planetary defense) are best suited for the military systems of our world, which by achieving create political accord among the major world powers?
  • Research Question. Could a negotiation framework at the presidential level be initiated by the U.S. to allow small, annual, incremental, and reciprocal transfers in terms of percentages from military budgets to an international civil space pioneering and defense budget or private fund?

Martin Schwab, Chapter 34

19. Moon

  • Hypothesis. In 2007, the 50th anniversary of the commencement of the civil space age will take place as will the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, the first permanent "New World" English colony in America in 1607. 2007 will commence the second half-century of the civil space age, and will also mark the beginning of a program to create the first city on the Moon with the initiation of the permanent expansion of the World's human civilization beyond the Earth.

Thomas F. Rogers, Chapter 7

20. Music and Arts

  • Hypothesis. Music and Arts programs throughout the world will increasingly establish programs or departments that focus the creative energy of youth toward music and the arts for humans in space.

Dr. Bob Krone, Chapter 16

21. New Frontier

  • Research Question. How to create a new sense of purpose, a new set of goals, a new frontier to move once again with might and majesty, with a sense of zest that makes life worth living, through the world in which we live. One of the most challenging frontiers left to us hangs above our heads.

Howard Bloom, Chapter 9

22. Popular Support for Space

  • Hypothesis. Only when regular citizens recognize the far-reaching humanitarian advantages, or can personally experience the technological advantages of the space program will a national or international space policy have broad support.

Dr. David Livingston, Chapter 12

23. Quality Sciences and Space Sciences

  • Hypothesis. Quality Control and Management has been a continual emphasis for space missions. A formal merging of Quality Sciences and Space Sciences will occur for the Humans-to-Space Migration.

Dr. Bob Krone, Fellow Member, American Society for Quality (ASQ), Chapters 16, 17 & 36

24. Risk, Safety, Reliability

  • Research Question. What R&D efforts into accident theories are needed to better understand what are the complexities in accident propagations and how phenomenological events occur which often cause catastrophic system failure
  • Research Question. What R&D efforts are needed to understand the human dynamics influences on the development and evolution of man-machine interfaced technological systems, and how the factors of human elements play a key role in the safety risk of all technological systems?
  • Research Question. Does absolute safety exist for manned space vehicle systems? Is it possible to eliminate accident by design? What are the design philosophies and strategies that can achieve such goal?
  • Research Question. How to systematically model, understand and control the interactive complexities that pose great threat to the safety of socio-technical systems?

Dr. Feng Hsu and Dr. Romney Duffey, Chapter 30

25. Self Destruction

  • Research Question. The views of past and current global leaders, expressed in Chapter 3 indicate that while military relationships continue to dominate the political agenda on Earth, the lure of human space pioneering can still deliver us from our dangerous propensity for self-destruction. How can global society now build upon this consensus?

Martin Schwab, Chapter 3

26. Spaceflight Systems

  • Hypothesis. NASA and global space entities should never again be confined to SINGLE and static human spaceflight architectures. If greater budgetary and capital investments were demanded, exponential increases in quality of human life would occur, based on proven records of success.

Martin Schwab, Chapters 3 and 34.

27. Space Trips for Peace

  • Hypothesis. Space Trips for Peace would create crews composed of members from nations marginally friendly, hostile, or even at war with each other. Space, new to civilization and without territorial boundaries and national sovereignties, would be the ideal frontier for demonstrating that people of all cultural beliefs and religious backgrounds are able to set aside differences and work harmoniously for goals mutually considered good.

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin and Thomas F. Rogers, Chapter 10

28. Win-Win Global Consciousness

  • Hypothesis. Both research and the search of human experience will be necessary to bring win-win benefits of space to the mainstream global consciousness.

Dr. Elliott Maynard, Arco Cielos Research Center


29. X-Prizes

  • Research Question. How has, and could, the X-Prize, positively impact the future of exploration and development of space?

Howard Bloom, Scientist, Business Entrepreneur

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