Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy

Mission to Enhance Ethics Education, Outreach, and Research in Space (METEORS)

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Despite largescale government and private investment in commercializing space travel, it remains too dangerous and too impractical for most civilians. 

We are working to fill critical policy gaps that advance The Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH) mission of translating responsible research on commercial space travel by developing an ethical framework for involving civilians in spaceflight research and formalizing an ethics review service for TRISH researchers. This will occur through a new collaborating partnership between TRISH and the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy (CMEHP) at Baylor College of Medicine called METEORS (Mission to enhance Ethics Education, Outreach, and Research in Space). Taken together, METEORS advances the TRISH mission by developing tools to enable the ethical translation of cutting-edge biomedical research and technology development and supports education on how to proportionately balance real human risks with tangible benefits of human space exploration missions moving forward. 

Funding provided by TRISH’s Space Health Expeditionary Research Projects Assets (SHERPA) program

Project Personnel

Amy McGuire, J.D., Ph.D. - Principal Investigator
Vasiliki (Vaso) Rahimzadeh, Ph.D. - Co-Principal Investigator
 

Publications 

Rahimzadeh V, Fogarty J, Caulfield T, et al. Ethically cleared to launch?. Science. 2023;381(6665):1408-1411. doi:10.1126/science.adh9028