Who We Are
We are a small team of early career space professionals who work on this site on a volunteer basis. We are passionate about advocating for a more equitable and sustainable space future.
Our Mission
We have put this resource list together with the intention that people can explore and develop their ideas related to space ethics, in a capacity that suits them best. In its current state, this library is not intended to be comprehensive, but instead to highlight resources and organisations that we think are useful to the community. Our hope is that this library can be built upon by the community, that is, we explicitly solicit suggestions of additions and ask for feedback on any of the existing resources.
Eleni Ravanis (co-creator)
Eleni Ravanis (she/her) is a PhD student and Graduate Research Assistant at the Hawaiʻi Institure of Geophysics and Planetology at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, a member of the NASA Mars 2020 Science Team and a student collaborator for the Mastcam-Z instrument on the Perseverance rover. She previously worked for the European Space Agency (ESA) for 2 years for the Mars Express mission. Eleni is passionate about the ethics of space exploration and planetary science, and working for a more equitable space future. She is a member of the SGAC Ethics and Human Rights working group. You can find her on Twitter @eleniravanis.
Andrea Owe (co-creator)
Andrea Owe is an ecological, space, and AI ethicist based in Norway, and a Research Associate at the Global Catastrophic Risk Institute. Her work centers on mitigating global catastrophic and existential risks to Earth’s life and enabling a good long-term future, on Earth and beyond. She works particularly on risks associated with climate change, ecological destruction, and artificial intelligence, and on how we can make terrestrial life multiplanetary. She holds an M.Phil in Development, Environment, and Cultural Change from the University of Oslo, a BA of Fine Arts from The Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, and is pursuing a Dr.philos. She is a member of the SGAC Ethics and Human Rights working group. You can find her at www.andreaowe.com and on Twitter @OweAndrea.
Curators
Dana Burton
Dana Burton is an anthropology PhD candidate at George Washington University. Her research follows NASA scientists’ search for evidence of life in outer space and investigates the methodological strategies scientists employ in their work. She conducted archival research at the Library of Congress/NASA Headquarters and ethnographic research that began at Ames Research Center in California and expanded to include a network of academic, scientific, and commercial organizations and nonhuman entities that are connected to life detection efforts. Dana endeavors to use storytelling and critical analysis to encourage multidisciplinary collaborations across the sciences, social sciences, and arts communities.
Nicole Murayama Nir
Nicole Murayama Nir (she/her) is a graduate student at DePaul University in Chicago and is pursuing a master’s degree in Critical Ethnic Studies with a concentration in Applied Diplomacy. She is a graduate assistant for a grant-based project on Identity, Intersectionality, and Social Justice, and a Graduate Fellow with the Egan Office for Urban Education and Community Partnerships. She has written about outer space as contested space, space exploration as an opportunity for healing, and ecological justice as social justice. Nicole participated in the 2019 International Space University Space Studies Program and was part of the coordinating and editing teams for the Space for Urban Planning Team Project.
Craig Henry Jones
Craig Henry Jones is a PhD candidate at Lancaster University, UK. His work critically examines the New Space Economy, focusing specifically on asteroid mining. It engages with the Anthropocene, post/decolonial theory, and political economy, looking at how asteroid mining is being (re)imagined by industry actors as a site of capital investment and accumulation. His work engages with Ethnofuturist art and writings to decenter normative accounts of Outer Space futurity that organize themselves around capitalism, Eurocentrism, and terracentrism, asking what alternative futures and geoethics may be possible.
Dr. Ash Watson
Dr Ash Watson is a sociologist of technology and fiction with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society at UNSW Sydney. Her research combines arts-based and qualitative methods to explore the sociocultural impacts of emerging technologies and the possible futures of current trends. She is Fiction Editor of The Sociological Review and creator/editor of the public sociology project So Fi Zine (sofizine.com).
The Space Ethics Library 