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Final Frontier Tests Terra Firma Ethics

NASA ponders death, sex during long space voyages

By Greg Atwan, Newser User

Posted May 1, 2007 7:49 PM CDT

(Newser) – As NASA plans a three-year manned mission to Mars during the next three decades, Oregon Trail ethics are being updated. What do you do with bodies of pioneers who don't make it? A new document on crew health from the space agency deals with death and interment where no man has gone before.

The report considers euthanasia for critically ill astronauts who are draining precious resources, and even an illegal form of genetic screening to lower the risk. How to manage cosmonauts' libidos was a subject too taboo for the paper, though it's one that's ultimately "going to have to be made about mixed-sex crews," a bioethicist says.

' (Associated Press)

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Final Frontier Tests Terra Firma Ethics

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World's Biggest Plane to Rocket People into Space

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Thousands converge to watch

NASA Preps Biggest-Ever Mars Rover

Can planet sustain life? Curiosity will search for clues

NASA Plans to Send Men to Mars, Leave Them There

Hundred Year Spaceship could hit other planets, too

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Team will join crew at international space station

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OTHER STORIES ON OUR RADAR

ethics • NASA • space exploration • Mars • space • astronauts • safety • cosmonaut

MOST POPULAR STORIES

[ By Views ]

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More Newser Stories

World's Biggest Plane to Rocket People into Space

Paul Allen project might be ready for tests in 2016

Mars Rover 'Curiosity' Launches

Thousands converge to watch

NASA Preps Biggest-Ever Mars Rover

Can planet sustain life? Curiosity will search for clues

NASA Plans to Send Men to Mars, Leave Them There

Hundred Year Spaceship could hit other planets, too

Yank Blasts Off With Cosmonauts

Team will join crew at international space station

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Newser By Users

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What is Newser?