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From Antarctica to Outer Space: Life in Isolation and Confinement aims to revitalize and encourage behavioral research in spaceflight as well as in polar and comparable settings. It comprises a broad collection of papers that evolved from presentations at a three day conference entitled The Human Experience in Antarctica: Applications to Life in Space (The Sunnyvale Conference). This conference was co-sponsored by the Division of Polar Programs of the National Science Foundation and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and held in 1987. The book provides, through firsthand accounts and research reviews, an introduction to the human facet in isolated and confined environments such as Antarctica, outer space, submarines, and remote national parks. The book discusses some of the theoretical issues underlying research on isolated and confined people, thus demonstrating the applicability of certain general theories of behavior. It also focuses on basic psychological and social responses to isolation and confinement. Studies whose primary purpose is to explore the effects of selection, training, and environmental design on human behavior and mission outcomes are discussed.
Is there life beyond Earth? NASA astrobiologist Dr. Chris McKay has searched the earth's most extreme environments on his quest to understand what factors are necessary to sustain life. Pamela S. Turner offers readers an inside look at Dr. McKay's research, explaining his findings and his hopes for future exploration both on Earth and beyond. Behind-the-scenes photos capture Dr. McKay, his expeditions, and the amazing microbes that survive against all odds.
Publisher Fact Sheet An exploration of the human side of spaceflight: what living & working in space will really be like in the decades to come.
This volume provides a comprehensive coverage of the principal extreme soil ecosystems of natural and anthropogenic origin. Extreme soils oppose chemical or physical limits to colonization by most soil organisms and present the microbiologist with exciting opportunities. Described here are a range of fascinating environments from permafrost to Martian soils. The book includes chapters on basic research in addition to applications in biotechnology and bioremediation.
This book examines the question of what we mean when we talk about life, revealing new insights into what life is, what it does, and why it matters. Jenell Johnson studies arguments on behalf of life—not just of the human or animal variety, but all life. She considers, for example, the Standing Rock Sioux tribe’s fight for water, deep ecologists’ Earth First! activism, the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement, and astrophysicists’ positions on Martian microbes. What she reveals is that this advocacy—vital advocacy—expands our view of what counts as life and shows us what it would mean for the moral standing of human life to be extended to life itself. Including short interviews with celebrated ecological writer Dorion Sagan, former NASA Planetary Protection Officer Catharine Conley, and leading figure in Indigenous and environmental studies Kyle Whyte, Every Living Thing provides a capacious view of life in the natural world. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in biodiversity, bioethics, and the environment.
"Overall, this is a wonderful work written to be accessible to people with more than a passing interest in astronomy." — Booklist on the 2023 edition of Yearbook of Astronomy Maintaining its appealing style and presentation, the Yearbook of Astronomy 2025 contains comprehensive jargon-free monthly sky notes and an authoritative set of sky charts to enable backyard astronomers and sky gazers everywhere to plan their viewing of the year’s eclipses, comets, meteor showers and minor planets as well as detailing the phases of the Moon and visibility and locations of the planets throughout the year. To supplement all this is a variety of entertaining and informative articles, a feature for whi...
Philosophers, historians, ethicists, and theologians provide the perspectives of their fields on astrobiology for graduate students and researchers.
Throughout history, humans have explored new places, making both good and bad moral decisions along the way. As humanity proceeds to explore space, it is important that we learn from the successes and not repeat the mistakes of the past. This book provides the first comprehensive introduction to ethics as it applies to space exploration and use. It examines real-world case studies that exemplify the ethical challenges we face in exploring beyond Earth: space debris, militarization in space, hazardous asteroids, planetary protection, the search for extraterrestrial life, commercial and private sector activities in space, space settlements, very long duration missions, and planetary-scale interventions. Major themes include human health, environmental concerns, safety and risk, governance and decision-making, and opportunities and challenges of multidisciplinary and international contexts. Ideal for classroom use and beyond, the book provides ways of thinking that will help students, academics and policymakers examine the full range of ethical decisions on questions related to space exploration.
We live in an evolving and increasingly complex global community and with this complexity comes a broad range of ethical issues. The Ethics: Contemporary Perspectives brings together scholars from across the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, including disciplines as diverse as philosophy, law, medicine and the study of world religions, to discuss these broad ethical issues in contemporary society. Its aim is explore our complex world, addressing both old and new ethical issues through scholarly discourse. This collection of essays looks at Extraterrestrial life. It looks at as a discipline itself and also the religious questions that arise in the investigation of the topic. It also looks at the topic of astrobiology and space exploration. The contributors are Christian theologians, ethicists as well as those who study and work at the International Space University based in France but with links around the world.