Philosphy of Space exploration

At present this forum is presenting many options for the discussion of space exploration.

What about a forum for the philosphy of Space exploration?

Hi Arising,
Could you offer some possible (space explorative) philosophic discussion areas? I'm trying to get a handle on what you have in mind, and not doing very well at it. Thanks dude,
NS (Nebulously Spaced)

I was thinking about things like, is it ethical to use our scarce resources for this endevour? As many argue that it is not given the state of the world. Or, what politics or political structures may be need to achieve effective space exploration? If any at all? Could the commercial market achieve it? What, if any, laws and restrictions should be placed upon those who explore space.

Should we call it Solar Exploration rather than Space(as its quite unlikely we'll be going there in the near future).

Stuuf like this.

Thanks for the explication, Arising.

These are all good questions, though I don't see the point of relabeling the general term of "space exploration" into "solar exploration" simply because it is one, of many, potential explorative objects. Isn't the convention to apply specific labels only to specific objects (e.g. 'Martian exploration,' 'Solar exploration,' etc.), and more comprehensive labels to larger objects (e.g. 'Solar system exploration,' 'galactic, or Milky Way, exploration')? While "Space" is meant to encompass all extra-terestial exploration, no?

Philosophy of space exploration is an interesting idea. I can competely see the ethics angle. (We already have a thread running on the forum about the morality of terraforming Mars). However, I'd be interested to know if there could be more to the philosophy of space exploration than simply the ethics of it.

There might be some scope for game theory etc. Also there might be occasional questions like those thrown up by the search for life on Mars, ie "what do we mean by life?" That's a philosophical question is anything is!