Insights Toward an Ethical Assessment of CubeSat Technologies

The rise of new technology usually comes with new ethical questions. The technology behind cube satellites and small satellites is no exception. This chapter provides an overview of some of the main ethical issues involved in these specific technologies. We consider the relevant issues by distinguishing between anthropological, environmental, and social concerns. Most of these problems appear to be connected to different degrees, and together they show how so-called CubeSats can influence human life on Earth. For this reason, it is important to delineate a narrow and a broad interpretation of space ethics, the latter of which we take to be most appropriate for an assessment of this technology. The effects of these technologies on different stakeholders will also be considered through the outlining of an Ethical Matrix to identify the conflicts that will eventually appear throughout different scenarios of their use.