Outer Space Consulting
Keeping social and environmental goals in the space exploration and exploitation formula
Outer Space Consulting
Keeping social and environmental goals in the space exploration and exploitation formula
About Outer Space Consulting
Welcome to Outer Space
Welcome to Outer Space
Welcome to Outer Space
Human activities in outer space are no longer science fiction, and the rates of our exploration and use of space are rapidly accelerating. It's time to apply lessons learned here on Earth to this new environment.
Purpose
Welcome to Outer Space
Welcome to Outer Space
- To assist industries, scientists, academics, and others with interests in outer space exploration and exploitation in recognizing the critical role of extraterrestrial environmental awareness in achieving and sustaining their goals, and
- To provide a forum for the exchange of information and ideas on how to bring social, ethical, and environmental concerns into outer space conversations.
Outer Space Consulting
Welcome to Outer Space
Outer Space Consulting
Offering expertise in developing novel and practical approaches to address the social, ethical, and environmental issues that will emerge with our use of outer space. Some potentials include:
- Creating an environmental assessment process to reduce costs, sustain development, reassure investors, and maintain options for future use.
- Fulfilling requirements of the Outer Space Treaty to support outer space as the “common heritage of humankind.”
- Addressing the ethical issues associated with our relationship with extraterrestrial resources.
I hope this website will be both provocative and liberating. If you find the information, articles and other postings useful, please let me know and alert others to this site.
William R. Kramer
Notebook
Society for Social and Conceptual Issues in Astrobiology
The meeting scheduled for March 2020 was rescheduled to 2021 at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi. Check SSOCIA's website for details about the organization: SSOCIA.com. The paper I was scheduled to present regarding the potential for adverse extraterrestrial environmental impacts and potential ways to minimize them will be presented in 2021.
International Space University 2020
Although invited back to ISU to provide lectures and workshops for the Space Studies Program 2020 in Strasbourg, France, that was cancelled due to the Covid-19 considerations. In its place, ISU will hold an on-line, interactive course this summer. I will be participating on several panels and will assist by mentoring students.
Reinvent Everything
My mentor and good friend, Dr. Jim Dator of the Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies, affirms, “Outer Space provides us the opportunity to reinvent EVERYTHING!” One of our biggest challenges as we move into this century of outer space is to not squander those opportunities. We must not repeat past mistakes just because they have become routine, convenient and expected -- just because we, as a multitude of cultures and histories, have always done things that way. That theme provides a foundation for most of my thoughts and writing about outer space exploration and exploitation. It's certainly applicable to the social sciences in areas such as governance design, geopolitics, international relations, and even law, intellectual property and patenting. But it also applies to biology -- It is becoming increasingly apparent that we will be evolving physically as well as psychologically to adapt to new environments in space. As we continue to extend our reach, reinvention will, perhaps, apply to physics, as well.
In short, be inventive! If the world was starting all over again, how might humans have made wiser choices for the centuries to come? We are taking the first steps at starting new worlds, and we CAN reinvent everything! Space is not only an opportunity to do that, it's necessary if we expect to be successful.