Utilitarianism In Mission To Mars

Throughout time, there has been a natural inclination to explore the unknown. From the Vikings of old, to the voyagers of Europe, to the settlers of America, and the explorers of the Arctic poles, there has always been a desire to go into the depths of the unknown and see what kind of amazing things lie just beyond our reach. However, this desire has not stopped with the edges of the Earth but has launched us into the very depths of space. From space exploration to landing on the moon our desire to explore cannot be limited.
During many of the exploration missions from old, many ethical issues were breached and there was destruction done to both the explorers and the original inhabitants of the land. When Englishman Robert Falcon Scott set …show more content…
A utilitarian would say that the ethics of the act depend on the consequences. For a one way mission to Mars, the positive consequences could be discovery of water, minerals and other useful natural resources. There could also be beneficial scientific discovery. Negative consequences could include decrease in health of the astronauts, loss of money, and loss of life. Using utilitarianism is very difficult in this case because the actual consequences are unknown. If a certain group of people had a strong desire to go on a mission to Mars their pleasure could be maximized by allowing them to go on this one way trip, but if the mission goes wrong their happiness and pleasure could easily diminish with little hope of rescue. This situation is also hard to evaluate as an act type because the act of exploration does not subject itself to a particular moral outcome. If scientific discovery and the collection and utilization of resources was produced as a result of the mission, one could argue that the loss of the lives of the astronauts was for the greater good and therefore the act is ethical, but this argument disregards the dignity of the astronauts themselves and again is assuming an outcome that is