Astrosociology
The consideration of the human dimension in spaceflight is part of the emerging field known as astrosociology, and defines astrosocial phenomena as “relating to all types of associations, either direct or indirect, between social or cultural patterns and space” (Pass). In this case the “association” is to a designer's artistic perspective.
The creation and existence of such a feild draws a direct line from C.P Snow's argument for interdisciplinary bridges and points to the cultural understanding that including artists and other humanities fields in the conversation about the future of human settlement and development in space is crucial. With the environment of space as a entirely fresh page to design for, we do not want to make the same mistakes we made on Earth. However, it's easy to forget how truly challenging space is. It is less akin to moving your house to low earth orbit, but more akin to moving your house to Antarctica, or Mt. Everest or other extreme environments. Space is not at all human friendly, not physically, not emotionally, so the inclusion of fields that specifically study what makes things habitable, or what brings us joy will be critical to even the basic survival component in Maslows hierarchy of needs. When on Earth, art can be argued to meet higher levels of the pyramid, in space something beautiful or pleasantly useful and comfortable amidst a confusing, cold, empty black environment can meen being able to survive a long trip to another planet or not."Astrosociology is a relatively new field defined as the study of astrosocial phenomena (i.e., the social, cultural, and behavioral patterns related to outer space). The field originally began as a sociological perspective almost exclusively for a very short time. Almost immediately, however, it became clear that contributions were required from the other social and behavioral sciences, the humanities, and the arts (hereafter referred to as the "social sciences" for brevity). Thus, from almost the very beginning, astrosociology was intended as both (1) a subdiscipline of sociology and (2) a multidisciplinary field that includes, but is by no means limited to disciplines/fields such as psychology, anthropology, economics, social psychology, political science, space history, space law, space policy, philosophy, as well as the arts. Thus, astrosociology is more inclusive than merely a sociological approach!
Astrosociology in its current form was founded and introduced in 2004 by Dr. Jim Pass to fill a void in the social sciences that seemed nearly as expansive as the vacuum of space. It is intended to make space research more balanced by adding a major focus -- the human dimension -- to our understanding of space exploration and related areas of inquiry such as space societies (more commonly referred to as space settlements and space colonies). The field of astrosociology takes a perspective that emphasizes the study of the relationship between "outer space and society," sometimes referred to as the "intersection between space exploration and humanity." This relationship is characterized by a two-way, or reciprocal, interaction between the two and occurs at the micro, middle (or meso), macro, global, and, at some point in the future, the interplanetary level."
However, astrosociology is not all sunshine and rainbows. While we hope that a fresh leaf can bring out the best in us, there could very well be situations where the harsh environment brings out the worst. In The Value of Science in Space Exploration by James Schwartz looks at a common rationale for space travel wherein settling Mars makes humanity confront challenges and thus prevents society from "stagnating". The argument goes that,
"This would force [settlers of Mars] to improvise, innovate, and adapt--all in ways that will teach the rest of humanity valuable lessongs about science, technology, and democratic governance--just as conquering of the American West did for the United States. In addition to being historically dubious, this strain of thinking dramatically underestimates the potential for space settlement to provide unwelcome lessons. For instance, in order to survice in the instantaneously lethal conditions on Mars, settlers might adopt autocratic or totalitarian forms of governance. The results might be an excersize in human suffering, as opposed to the enginerizing of democratic culture.
