Humans in Outer Space - Interdisciplinary Odysseys (Hardcover, 2009)

Introduction - 1. Setting the scene: Summary - Micro-organisms and extraterrestrial travel - Future Encounters: Learning from the Past? - Are we alone? Searching for life in the universe and its creation - What's the story, mother? Some thoughts on science fiction film and space travel - Aiming ahead: next generation visions for the next 50 years in space 2. Can we compare? Summary - Inter caetera and outer space: some rules of engagement - Celestial bodies: Lucy in the sky - Why we had better drop analogies when discussing the role of humans in space 3. 'Spatiality' - Space as a source of inspiration: Summary - Missing the important: how we talk and write about space - Towards a new inspiring era of collaborative space exploration. Providing inspiration through international cooperation 4. First odyssey: humans in earth orbit: what effect does it have? Summary - With the eyes of an astronaut - Human spaceflight, technology development and innovation - Human-machine coopeation in space environments - Space law in the age of international space station 5. Second odyssey: humans in space exploration: what effects will it have? Summary - Humans - more than the better robots for exploration? -Humans leaving the earth - a philosopher's view - Human spaceflight as a matter of culture and national vision - The need of a legal framework for exploration 6. Third odyssey: human migrating the earth: why we should think! Summary - Mars as a place to live? - Past, present and future - Philosophical and eligious implications of extraterrestrial intelligent life - E.T. culture 7. The Vienna vision of humans in outer space