Eternal footprints on cosmic bodies - how human impact affects the cosmic environment
- Paper number
IAC-06-E2.2.08
- Author
Ms. Timea Csengeri, Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary
- Year
2006
- Abstract
The first steps to explore our cosmic neighborhood are already in progress since almost half a century. As the first satellites and space probes seemed to be an exciting technical achievement with tremendous scientific benefit, they also brought a breakthrough in several fields of astronomy and space sciences. But as the exploration of the Solar System is getting more intense, we have to seriously consider the impact of human activity on celestial bodies and interplanetary space. First I have to mention one of the most obvious impact of growing space activities, what can be seen as the Earth's closest environment is “filled” with satellites. This has a lot of impacts on the environment of the Earth itself and the space debris is a growing problem as well. In the following I want to focus on a more general issue of the impact of space activity, which concerns the impact of the robotic and human exploration of the Solar System. How robotic space probes or human missions change the environment of a celestial body has been mostly concerned due to the risk of contamination. This issue has been covered by the guidelines of planetary protection. [1] Besides contamination it is clear that even scientific exploration affects the natural state of planetary bodies, like an impact scrapes the surface of a planet. However – for example – an impact of a space probe can be caused by an accident or failure, building a base on Moon cause changes on the natural environment. This consequences ethical issues regarding how deeply mankind is “allowed” to alter the original environment of planetary bodies. It is also important to consider a second issue of human impact also, which is intentional alteration. A recent proof is the Deep Impact space probe, which created an artificial impact on the Tempel-1 comet. In my work I want to point out some important impacts on planetary bodies, which are caused by space activities both by robotic and human exploration, e.g. how the building and presence of human bases may affect a planet’s natural cosmic environment. There are three main factors, which determine determine how “sensitive” or endangered a planetary body is to human impact: 1. A planetary body, which may harbor any form of present or ancient life is extremely exposed to any external influence. We have to be aware that without due foresight even an unknown ecosystem can be easily disturbed or destroyed without knowing about it at all. 2. Planetary bodies with no active internal or external forces are especially defenseless to human impacts, since there is no possibility for the renewal of surface, that could compensate the alteration caused by human presence. 3. Exploitation of planetary resources might become also realistic in the future threatening the natural environment of several planetary bodies. As human impact might cause irreversible and permanent damages on a planetary environment, we have to keep in mind that every cosmic environment represents a specific value and it is a great responsibility to explore these worlds with a minimized impact on them. As the footsteps of astronauts are still present on the surface of the Moon, every movement of human activity will be an eternal memorial for the upcoming generations. References 1. Almar, I.: What could COSPAR do to protect the planetary and space environment?, Adv. Space Res., Vol. 30, No. 6, pp. 1577-1581, 2002
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
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