Moon Bases as Initial “Space Society” Trials: Utilizing Astrosociology to Make Space Settlements Livable.

As we prepare to go back to the Moon on a permanent basis, it behooves us to take advantage of our return to the Moon by increasing our knowledge base so as to make all aspects of survival possible. The standard approach remains fixed on meeting the challenges related to power, physical habitat, and others associated with the physical environment and personal survival. While this traditional facet of space settlement must be addressed in a successful manner, the other set of variables to the equation for human survival in space receive little attention. In other words, we tend to focus so strongly on getting to a location and setting up a physical habitat that we overlook what it will require to survive in our new social world once the physical environment is functioning properly. We should take care now to begin formal consideration of the psychological, social, and cultural realities that will exist once we arrive. Plans starting with the very first Moon base should integrate research objectives that both (1) construct the integral physical elements of an isolated habitat and (2) study how the new social system operates subsequently. In fact, we should involve social scientists in planning as many of the latter issues as possible before the mission begins. This dual approach will serve as a first step to acquiring the critical knowledge necessary for human beings to live in isolated space environments situated too far away from the Earth that practical assistance is not readily available. Astrosociology, being a multidisciplinary social scientific field, can serve to unite social scientists interested in space research to work together on this issue and others in a formal manner. This, in turn, will make it possible for them to collaborate with space scientists and engineers in order to foster a fully comprehensive approach to make space settlements livable on a long-term basis. This collaboration, involving natural scientists and social scientists working together for the common goal of implementing sustainable space societies and conducting relevant research to improve the next project, represents a fundamental shift to a new paradigm currently unfamiliar. This paper lays out the basics for this new paradigm, for consideration by both the social science community and the space community. © 2007 American Institute of Physics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]