Ethics and Public Integrity in Space Exploration
- Paper number
IAC-16,E3,6,8,x33044
- Coauthor
Mr. Adam Greenstone, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), United States
- Year
2016
- Abstract
This paper will discuss the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) work to support ethics and public integrity in human space exploration. Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) to protect an organization's reputation has become a private sector best practice. Government ethics law and practice is integral to a government entity's ERM by managing public sector reputational risk. This activity has also increased on the international plane, as seen by the growth of ethics offices in UN organizations and public international financial institutions. Included in this area are assessments to ensure that public office is not used for private gain, and that external entities are not given inappropriate preferential treatment. NASA has applied rules supporting these precepts to its crew since NASA's inception. The increased focus on public sector ethics principles for human activity in space is important because of the international character of contemporary space exploration. This was anticipated by the 1998 Intergovernmental Agreement for the International Space Station (ISS), which requires a Code of Conduct for the Space Station Crew. Negotiations among the ISS Partners established agreed-upon ethics principles, now codified for the United States in regulations at 14 CFR § 1214.403. Understanding these ethics precepts in an international context requires cross-cultural dialogue. Given NASA's long spaceflight experience, a valuable part of this dialogue is understanding NASA's implementation of these requirements. Accordingly, the paper will explain how NASA addresses these and related issues, including for human spaceflight and crew, as well as the development of U.S. Government ethics law which NASA follows as a U.S. federal agency. Interpreting how the U.S. experience relates constructively to international application involves parsing out which dimensions relate to government ethics requirements that the international partners have integrated into the ISS Crew Code of Conduct, and which relate to other areas of U.S. administrative law. It is also constructive to identify areas where national and/or cultural perspectives may differ. Another reason for heightened focus on ethics is the increasing regularity of long duration human spaceflight. Accordingly, the paper will recognize that in earlier days of spaceflight astronauts had little time for anything other than mission operations. The increase in inflight personal time and opportunity for personal communications heightens the importance to spacefaring nations of advising on ethics obligations in real time. Through individual and collective action, stakeholders in evolving and future government space exploration will be able to effectively address ethics compliance and reputational risk.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-16,E3,6,8,x33044.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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