Can a authorities promote morality? How a lot belief ought to individuals place of their authorities?
Such elementary questions of political philosophy and ethics intrigue Leela Fredlund, a senior majoring in political science and physics. She has parsed these subjects in historical Greek texts, interrogated them in formal classroom recitations, and debated them informally with pupil buddies. However for Fredlund, there’s maybe no higher venue for exploring these traditional issues than house.
“I noticed that I may increase very attention-grabbing questions on the intersection of astronomy and political science,” says Fredlund. By way of undergraduate initiatives at MIT and at establishments resembling NASA, Fredlund has been centered on the methods governments are shaping humanity’s increasing ventures off planet.
“Can we consider governments have our greatest pursuits at coronary heart?” she asks. “House looks like a really apparent frontier to check that query.”
Ethics guidelines
When Fredlund arrived at MIT from her surfside California hometown, she had already determined to double main in science (chemistry, at the moment) and philosophy. “In highschool, I used to be very interested by pondering by means of my very own political views,” she remembers. “I used to be actually nervous that at a STEM college like MIT I wouldn’t have a discussion board for the sorts of discussions I discovered essential.”
In Concourse, a first-year studying neighborhood, she discovered a base. “Concourse requires a course known as Changing into Human: Historic Greek Views on the Good Life (CC.110), the place we examine historical Greek political philosophy by means of introductory ethics texts by Aristotle and Plato,” she says. “We had unimaginable debates about making use of the ideas we have been studying to our every day lives and to fashionable political points; my ethical code shifted because of the category and I actually felt like I used to be simply benefiting as an individual from it.”
Changing into Human proved pivotal to Fredlund’s tutorial evolution. She signed up as a educating assistant for the category, a gig that she maintained by means of her senior yr, and located a detailed mentor in its teacher, Senior Lecturer Linda R. Rabieh. By her first-year spring, Fredlund knew she would main in political science. “I actually appreciated the thought of this smaller division that might be like Concourse,” she says. “I believed that political science would supply a neighborhood that cared loads about moral questions and could be an area the place I may have my beliefs challenged, take into consideration points that I hadn’t thought loads about earlier than, probably change my thoughts on a few of the large questions, and customarily broaden my horizons.”
Firmly rooted in political science, Fredlund sought a path to marry it in some way together with her different main, now physics. The reply emerged for her in sophomore yr, in school 17.801 (Political Science Scope and Strategies). “I remembered after I was a lot youthful I assumed I’d develop up and develop into an astronaut, and have become very interested by astronomy and house journey,” she says. “It was simple to get again into these topics, and so I started to dig into questions associated to house coverage, house tourism, and exploitation of sources on different planets.”
Fredlund’s year-long challenge for 17.801, a 600-participant survey experiment, probed public views on house growth, particularly attitudes towards authorities versus non-public initiatives. Her examine yielded plenty of novel findings: Respondents overwhelmingly supported a serious enlargement of bold, government-backed house missions, resembling Mars exploration, to “push the frontiers of human functionality,” says Fredlund. “It felt like an area race sentiment.” Her survey additionally revealed a desire for NASA collaborations with pleasant nations just like the U.Okay., slightly than non-public corporations.
“We maintain governments to a unique ethical commonplace than people, so a private-sector house firm directing exploration or useful resource extraction house missions would possibly put its industrial ambitions and targets first,” she says.
Making Mars accessible
Fredlund discovered the moral issues entailed in house growth endlessly fascinating. To solidify her technical understanding of the topic, she took as many astronomy and astrophysics courses as her schedule would permit. She additionally landed a sequence of internships related to her pursuits.
Over summer season 2022, she labored at NASA researching the type and placement of amenities wanted to obtain Mars samples after the mission’s deliberate return to Earth within the 2030s. Fredlund discovered herself confronting the sorts of massive questions she most likes.
“I used to be working with the European House Company to see who legally owns the samples we get again from Mars, which is a brilliant attention-grabbing query as a result of there isn’t any precedent,” she says. “The Outer House Treaty, which was made within the ’60s, had not deliberate for a global collaboration that might deliver treasures again from one other planet.”
Final summer season and through senior yr, Fredlund interned for the United Nations Workplace for Outer House Affairs, researching problems with accessibility within the house sector, looking for out promising new applied sciences which may allow bodily and mentally disabled individuals to take part within the house sector. “I met scientists who’re making an attempt to make the Worldwide House Station accessible to individuals with auditory and visible deficits,” she says. This aim resonates for Fredlund, who has been extremely engaged within the MIT Panhellenic Council to make campus Greek life extra inclusive to various communities.
Worldwide house regulation
Fredlund’s post-MIT plans are quickly falling into place. “I spent a whole lot of time speaking to NASA’s authorized and worldwide relations groups, who’re like diplomats to the European House Company,” she says. “They’re savvy about working with different nations in house growth.” By way of this publicity, “I grew to become very within the worldwide regulation facet of house questions,” says Fredlund. “I wish to assist guarantee we proceed to function in good religion, and that folks prioritize the science in worldwide collaborations.”
Within the subsequent two years, Fredlund goals to cement her technical background by incomes a grasp’s diploma in astronomy or astrophysics. Then she heads to Harvard Regulation College. After that, she imagines herself on the United Nations or NASA, decoding worldwide regulation, making an attempt to make sure that the house sector stays a spot for honest and really cooperative ventures.
“The house sector is growing so shortly, I’m not totally positive what the large questions will probably be six years from now,” says Fredlund. “There may be a whole lot of uncertainty and I feel uncertainty is thrilling.”
