PARIS, France - "Space should be proclaimed a scientific territory available to mankind," said an unprecedented report about the ethics of space policy published this week by the European Space Agency (ESA) and UNESCO, and should prevent "future generations from the possible harm of space-technology applications."

At the initiative of Antonio Rodota, ESA director general, the 244-page report, "The Ethics of Space Policy," examined several aspects of ethical problems posed by the utilization of outer space. It covered topics ranging from piloted spaceflight, the search for extraterrestrial life and sample-return protocol, to space debris, Earth monitoring and space exploration's public image.

"The purpose of this initiative is not because there is a specific problem regarding space activities," said Antonio Rodota in an exclusive interview with SPACE.com, "but because this will give people confidence that we are addressing space issues in the proper way. Ethics is a fundamental aspect of human society. For those who are involved in space activities, ignoring this debate is not an option," he added. All the members of the working group recommend that when dealing with space activities, not only should the technical, commercial and economic dimensions be considered, but also the ethical ones.

"To many citizens of the world, science and technology are giants that they watch marching blindly forward, towering over everything, taking control, creating a world so complex that few people understand where its momentumŠ[comes]Šfrom," said Vigdis Finnbogadottir, former president of Iceland and goodwill ambassador to the UNESCO. "It is vital that these same citizens of the world should know that such issues are actually being discussed by people who are pondering what is right and wrong about them; how they can either enrich our life or degrade it," she said. For Mr. Rodota, there is neither a threat from advances in space technology, nor is it possible or desirable to reverse it, "but people have to be sure that we are not adding problems to the ones already existing." For instance, he says, "everybody is talking about space debris, but nobody has suffered any kind of risk today because of existing space debris." He recommended an authority independent of the existing space agencies --- "Šsome other body which looks at this problem and gives people confidence that what we are doing is safe enough not to cause any problem to anybody."

Space debris

Regarding the problems of debris and waste, space can be the source of the problem, but could also be the solution. On one hand, the report discussed the limitation of space-activity-based pollution, including taking preventive measures on space debris that should be defined and imposed uniformly on all users of space technology.

Alternatively, it said, the same technology in the long run "could helpŠrid the Earth's surface of the most dangerous waste materialŠ, in particular nuclear waste, by putting this material in a circum-solar orbit where storage capacity is unlimited. Nevertheless," the report stressed, this type of disposal method could only be used under "conditions of absolute safety." Regarding ecological matters, the report also recommended that "environmental data should be available to the least prosperous countries."

To Modibo Diarra, an engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, who attended the UNESCO special commission meeting, all of these ethical questions are nothing new in the United States and to NASA.

"Because we've been involved in space exploration for such a long time, these debates have been going on in the States for a while at different levels -- like the one at the Academy of Science and NASA [which] has the largest public outreach program in the world," says Diarra.

Though not here representing NASA officially, Diarra is a goodwill ambassador to UNESCO at the Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology (COMEST). The COMEST subcommittee on space issues received the final remarks of the ethics report July 11. "The objective of this group is trying to make some recommendations for the whole world," said Diarra.

Electronic Surveillance

Among the numerous questions raised by the report, which will be available on internet this summer at www.unesco.org, is the critical issue of electronic surveillance, which can interfere with individual freedom.

It is now possible to intercept communication data transmitted by satellite to locate, and even to identify and monitor the behavior of individuals, using a positioning system and mobile phones. "Since electronic surveillance is inevitable, management and control of data must be regulated by giving access in particular to cryptography, while protecting the confidentiality of information and individuals," says Alain Pompidou, coordinator of the study.

Regarding the registration of space-technology patents, the report recommended the promotion of some European and even international legislation. "A problem of the modalities for appropriation of space technologies clearly arises here because at present the U.S.A. alone holds a monopoly on the filing of patents for interventions or devices carried on board satellites," the report said. The authors of the study also warns against "[mis] disinformation deliberately put about by the media" using the emotional context of space where, "for centuries, the heavens were a source of myth." The report emphasized that the media must not appropriate an exclusive right to communication about space. Consequently, "steps must be taken to ensure adequate scientific training of the media." "Earth and space are not ours. They are treasures, real and symbolic, which we owe to ourselves to safeguard for our descendants", said Finnbogadottir.