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1 Introduction
Pages 13-24

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From page 13...
... Exploration undertaken in the name of adventure and scientific innovations, new trade markets, geopolitical dominance, and the advancement of human civilization has led to the discovery of distant lands and new ideas that challenge accepted beliefs and perceived limitations. Naval and land exploration have connected remote cultures and civilizations, generated new sources of wealth, expanded scientific and technological knowledge and capabilities, and promoted an exchange of ideas that has revolutionized long-held beliefs about the world.
From page 14...
... . Investment in space exploration has led to cutting-edge aerospace technology, weather satellites and climate modeling, communication and navigation satellites, new and transformational medical technologies, and a greater understanding of the effects of space on human physiology (Dick and Cowing, 2004)
From page 15...
... . 2 The National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics, NASA's predecessor, was founded to "supervise and direct the scientific study of the problems of flight, with a view to their practical solution, and to determine the problems which should be experimentally attacked, and to discuss their solution and their application to practical questions" (The Naval Appropriations Act of 1916, P.L.
From page 16...
... The most effective utilization of the scientific and engineering resources of the United States, with close cooperation among all interested agencies of the United States in order to avoid unnecessary duplication of effort, facilities, and equipment.4 These objectives have played an integral role in shaping NASA's history and vision, and are important considerations when exploring the ethics defining health standards in human spaceflight.5 NASA is charged with designing and implementing space missions, which pose high risks to human health and safety, and with risk assessment and management. This broad governance structure provides opportunities to design feedback loops that can translate data and experience into improved risk management strategies, but it can also lead to perceived and actual conflicts of interest that have important ethical implications, as discussed later in this report.
From page 17...
... Within NASA, the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate provides "leadership and management of NASA space operations related to human exploration in and beyond [LEO] " as well as "NASA space operations related to Launch Services, Space Transportation, and Space Communications in support of both human and robotic exploration programs" (NASA, 2013a)
From page 18...
... . Given uncertainties about health and safety risks facing astronauts during extended stays on the ISS or on exploration missions to an asteroid or Mars, NASA asked the IOM to examine the ethics and policy principles that should guide decision making about health standards for long duration and exploration class missions "when existing health standards cannot be fully met" or adequate standards cannot be developed based on existing evidence (see Box 1-1)
From page 19...
... These standards would address potential hazardous exposures and work ing conditions that are uncertain, unknown, or that go beyond current NASA risk limits. NASA is looking in particular for a framework of ethical and policy principles that can help guide decision making associated with implementing health standards for exploration class space missions when existing standards cannot be fully met, or the level of knowledge of a given condition is sufficiently limited that an adequate standard cannot be devel oped, for the mission.
From page 20...
... , but they also define the parameters of risk exposure and the resulting impact of current health standards on a specific mission. This report focuses on the benefits of human spaceflight only to the extent that it is relevant to the identification of ethics principles and the development of a decision framework related to health standards for long duration and exploration spaceflights (see Chapters 5 and 6)
From page 21...
... and the IOM have been involved in providing advice to NASA about space travel and human space exploration since the late 1950s (NRC, 2013a) and have produced numerous studies, such as Safe Passage: Astronaut Care for Exploration Missions (IOM, 2001)
From page 22...
... Chapter 4 examines various roles of NASA and NASA astronauts and provides examples of regulations or policies that apply to similar activities in terrestrial environments, extracting common factors that appear to influence decisions about risk acceptance. Chapter 5 recommends specific ethics principles that are relevant to decisions about human spaceflight.
From page 23...
... Presentation at the National Research Council's meeting of the Committee on Human Spaceflight. Washington, DC, October 21.
From page 24...
... 2013b. Committee on Human Spaceflight statement of task.


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