Abstract The emergence of private space actors may soon enable the growth of the novel market segments of space research and exploration, space resources utilization, and human access to space. The interdisciplinary field of Planetary Protection has to keep up with these advances. Planetary Protection is defined as a set of guidelines that aim to prevent the forward contamination of celestial bodies with biological material from Earth and the backward contamination of the terrestrial biosphere with extraterrestrial biological material. As space entrepreneurs acquire and develop the resources and competencies for commercial access to space, significant questions are expected to be raised in the future with respect to potential forward and backward contamination issues, particularly with respect to activities between Earth and Mars. Although such private activities do not seem to pose a serious Planetary Protection threat at the moment, certain preparatory steps need to be taken in order to prudently inform the relevant policy-making procedures. This work describes the application of the Contingent Valuation Method, a useful tool of the environmental economics discipline, with the aim of demonstrating a novel approach to estimate the economic valuation of the external benefits of preventing forward and backward contamination between Earth and Mars. Particularly, via a survey specifically developed for this purpose, a set of questions are used to elicit the perceived economic value that respondents place on the prevention of forward and backward contamination; the survey is administered to a national probability sample in Greece, and the generated data is processed through statistical analysis. The Contingent Valuation Method is a popular and well-established stated preference valuation technique; these techniques are often the more suitable choice for ex-ante valuations of future changes, and are currently the only known approach to capture all the aspects of the economic value of non-market goods. Through an initial proof-of-concept in Greece, the goal of this work is to provide useful insights on the expected external benefits of a national Planetary Protection policy to regulate future private space activities between Earth and Mars, and to encourage a larger-scale application of this tool in other countries around the world.


    Access

    Check access

    Check availability in my library

    Order at Subito €


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Measuring the economic benefits of a national planetary protection policy to regulate future private space activities between Earth and Mars: Results of a contingent valuation survey in Greece


    Contributors:

    Published in:

    Advances in Space Research ; 67 , 12 ; 4158-4176


    Publication date :

    2021-02-24


    Size :

    19 pages




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English




    CONTINGENT VALUATION: IDENTIFYING THE BENEFITS OF RURAL TRANSIT

    Casavant, K. L. / Painter, K. M. / Scott, R. D. et al. | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2003


    Planetary protection issues and future Mars missions

    Devincenzi, D. L. / Klein, H. P. / Bagby, J. R. | NTRS | 1991


    Refinement of Planetary Protection Policy for Mars Missions

    DeVincenzi, D.L. | Online Contents | 1996


    Refinement of planetary protection policy for Mars missions

    DeVincenzi, D. L. / Stabekis, P. / Barengoltz, J. | NTRS | 1996


    Revision to Planetary Protection Policy for Mars Missions

    DeVincenzi, D. L. / Stabekis, P. / Barengoltz, J. et al. | NTRS | 1994