The search for life in the universe, once the stuff of science fiction, is now a robust worldwide
research program with a well-defined roadmap probing both scientific and societal issues …

There is an unbridged gap between human aspirations to travel into space and the barriers
to realizing such dreams. Despite optimistic predictions, a viable space tourism industry has …

Olli-Pekka Vainio, a leading expert in science and theology, explores questions concerning
the place and significance of humans in the cosmos. Vainio introduces cosmology from a" …

How can we think about a universal ethics that could be adopted by any intelligent being,
including the rising population of cyborgs, intelligent machines, intelligent algorithms, or …

Inspired by past efforts to delineate potential future reactions to a discovery of extraterrestrial
life, this work draws on the humanities literature of monster studies and monster theory to …

Pulsars have at least two impressive applications. First, they can be used as highly accurate
clocks, comparable in stability to atomic clocks; secondly, a small subset of pulsars …

The purpose of this paper is to explore the possibility space of scenarios of 'contact'—the
discovery of extra-terrestrial life, whether intelligent or not—using a morphological approach …

Astrophysical hazards originating beyond the Solar System, including gamma-ray bursts
and nearby supernovae, subjectively pose a negligible risk to contemporary human …

The Fermi paradox concerns the possible existence of advanced extraterrestrial civilizations.
The Kardashev scale envisages advanced civilizations that may control and consume …

This volume, Space Tourism: The Elusive Dream, constitutes a comprehensive collection of
chapters that analyzes the burgeoning phenomenon of space tourism from diverse and …