Abstract
What does dust on Mars have in common with executive orders? They both have the potential to strongly drive design decisions. Dust on Mars is a factor that cannot be ignored when planning missions to go there. Mars has a thin atmosphere, low gravity, and its dust is ultrafine comprised in part of compounds toxic to humans. Equipment and systems must be designed to account for this ever-present Martian feature. Executive orders and other policies dictate the bounds of access to space. These policies enable governments to determine who, how, and when to go to space. Policies drive safety and performance requirements which all steer the design of space vehicles and payloads. I chose to focus on space policy for my STS thesis instead of a more directly related topic to my technical project because it is an important aspect of engineering. Because policy frequently drives engineering decisions, it’s important that it does so ethically. As engineers, we can design many things, but it is vital that we understand the impact of our work. STS theory broadens our perspectives on what ethical design means.
In the technical portion of my thesis, my team and I designed a dust remediation system to use on Mars. We considered what dust-related problems long-term stays on Mars crewmembers would face. One of the potential problems could be keeping dust out of habitats. This is important not only to the integrity of equipment but to the health of the crew. Crewmembers will not be protected by suits within habitats so it must be removed before entering the habitats. Martian dust poses a problem in that it does not easily wipe off due to Martian conditions. Instead, dust particles can stay suspended in the air for several weeks, or even indefinitely. We created a dust removal system that attaches to the airlocks of the habitats. The dust-covered crew and their cargo can seal themselves in this system. Once inside, the dust is removed through a combination of wind tunnel, which blows the dust off and pushes it to the next section, and an electrostatic precipitator. This feature works by sending the dust through an electrically charged mesh. The dust acquires the charge, and the wind continues to blow the charge to the next section. The final section is a large plate of an opposite charge, which causes the dust to “stick” to it, effectively decontaminating the crew and their cargo.
My STS thesis focused on reviewing current U.S. space policy to determine if it supports responsible development of the space economy from environmental and cultural perspectives. I reviewed several space directives, executive orders, frameworks, international treaties, and other policies and agreements. My research revealed a web of sometimes conflicting policies with differing motivations that ultimately seemed to deprioritize environmental impacts on Earth in favor of outer space dominance and commercial expansion. Historically, advancements in space have adhered to colonialist tactics to extract resources and locations from communities without their consent. Troublingly, I also discovered through my research that no policies are currently in place to prevent a continuation of that legacy.
My engineering and STS work have reinforced my strong belief that space exploration cannot be treated as a destination we must get to by any means necessary. My major is aerospace engineering—I love space, deeply. But space is also just the place where home is. There is nothing in outer space that is worth ruining our planet and the well-being of all its inhabitants for. Ethics and personal values underscore every action we take. Using those as the foundation and the framework for any project we undertake enables us to find a shared sense of responsibility and safety. Just like we can’t get to space without having an effect on Earth, we also cannot be great engineers without considering the impacts we will have on everything. In some scenarios, it will be useful to evaluate our projects through a utilitarian lens in which we decide which actions yield the greatest good. In other cases, we can look at how our systems are structured and how that is driving design. In the case of space policy that my research has determined to be lacking, it does not mean that we as engineers must disregard the environment; we still have agency and should make ethical decisions, even where not strictly mandated.
