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Argues that space exploration offers numerous benefits to scientific understanding including climate change and that expansion beyond Earth may have other, long-term advantages for civilisation
In an era of unprecedented climate challenges, should we still be trying to explore space or should all our scientific attention be focused here on Earth? If space is becoming a playground for billionaires, will that enflame tensions between superpowers with potentially disastrous results?
What is Space Exploration For? argues that it offers indispensable benefits to scientific understanding, not least in addressing climate change. And, while space exploration’s immediate benefits are likely to be scientific and economic, the authors emphasise that expansion beyond Earth may have other, long-term advantages for civilisation in broadening our understanding of who we are.
Tony Milligan is a Teaching Associate in the School of History, Philosophy & Digital at the University of Sheffield. He is also Associate Editor for the Springer Space and Society series; chair of the Exam Board for the University of London International Program in Theology. Tony delivered the annual lecture between 2018 and 2021 on Space Ethics as part of the MA in Space Studies at the International Space University in Strasbourg and has written extensively on space and society. He has been quoted on space matters in major national newspapers and magazines including The Guardian and Scientific American. His previous books include Nobody Owns the Moon: The Ethics of Space Exploitation (McFarland and Co., 2014).
Koji Tachibana is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the Faculty of Humanities in Chiba University (Japan), a member of the board of directors at the Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences for Space in the Japan Society for Aeronautical and Space Sciences, and an International Associate Scholar at Georgetown University Medical Center (USA). Koji has published two edited books: Alternative Virtues (Routledge, 2024) and Philosophy and Education of Virtue (Toyokan-Publishing, 2023), and a co-edited book: Aristotle in Japan (Routledge, 2025). He has also published many articles and book chapters, including “Ethics in Space Security” in The Oxford Handbook of Space Security (2024). His forthcoming book includes The Philosophy of Space Exploration (Kobunsha, 2026).
