Astrosociology and Space Exploration: Taking Advantage of the Other Branch of Science

Abstract

The space age marches on. Following President Bush's Vision for Space Exploration (VSE) and our recent celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of spaceflight on October 4, 2007, we should now take time to contemplate where we have been as it relates to where we are going. Space exploration has depended most strongly on engineers and space scientists in the past. This made sense when crews remained small, manned missions tended to operate in low Earth orbit and on a temporary basis, and the bulk of missions were carried out by robotic spacecraft. The question one must now ask is this: What will change in the next fifty years? One fundamental answer to this question involves the strong probability that human beings will increasingly go into space to live and work on long‐duration missions and begin to live in space permanently. This article addresses the need to utilize the other neglected branch of science, comprised of the social and behavioral sciences along with the humanities, as it relates to the shift to a more substantial human presence in space. It focuses on the social science perspective needed to make this possible rather than the practical aspects of doing so, such as the engineering of functional habitats. A most important consideration involves the permanent establishment of a formal collaborative mechanism between astrosociologists and the engineers and space scientists who traditionally comprise the space community. The theoretical and applied aspects of astrosociology each have much to contribute toward the human dimension of space exploration, both on the Earth and beyond its atmosphere. The bottom line is that a social species such as ours cannot determine how to live in space without the input from a social science perspective, namely astrosociology.