NASA Can't Ethically Send Astronauts On One-Way Missions To Deep Space 402
Daniel_Stuckey (2647775) writes "If NASA is serious about deep space missions, it's going to have to change its safety guidelines, because there's no conceivable way that, within the next few years, our engineering capabilities or understanding of things like radiation exposure in space are going to advance far enough for a mission to Mars to be acceptably "safe" for NASA. So, instead, the agency commissioned the National Academies Institute of Medicine to take a look at how it can ethically go about changing those standards. The answer? It likely can't.
In a report released today, the National Academies said that there are essentially three ways NASA can go about doing this, besides completely abandoning deep space forever: It can completely liberalize its health standards, it can establish more permissive "long duration and exploration health standards," or it can create a process by which certain missions are exempt from its safety standards. The team, led by Johns Hopkins University professor Jeffrey Kahn, concluded that only the third option is remotely acceptable."
In a report released today, the National Academies said that there are essentially three ways NASA can go about doing this, besides completely abandoning deep space forever: It can completely liberalize its health standards, it can establish more permissive "long duration and exploration health standards," or it can create a process by which certain missions are exempt from its safety standards. The team, led by Johns Hopkins University professor Jeffrey Kahn, concluded that only the third option is remotely acceptable."
oblig... (Score:5, Funny)
The only danger is if they send [them] to that terrible Planet of the Apes.
Wait a minute....
Then (Score:5, Funny)
Option #4 (Score:5, Funny)
Let China go first.
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Re:So Stop Calling It "A One Way Mission" (Score:5, Funny)
OTOH, there are no natives to eat them either.
Re:Ethical is irrelevant. (Score:5, Funny)
Nah, it wouldn't work. Consider the case of an air leak caused by a micro meteor...
Politicians would be using up the remaining air debating whether the leak is real, despite all the evidence, such as dropping air pressure.
Soldiers would be jump into action trying to plug the holes, though hopefully not with bullets.
Re:Option #4 (Score:5, Funny)
Then Mars would be red in more than one way