As contemporary post-industrial societies advance, a most interesting question arises: What will be the social structures and cultures of tomorrow? The changes that initiated and sustained the space age may provide the roots for our own future. We present a model of a spacefaring society in which all major social institutions, the larger culture, subcultures, and human values shift away from our planet of origin and re-center on space. Under this scenario, everything from the economy to

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... activities shifts from a terrestrial to an extraterrestrial orientation. Right now, when we have just begun to take our first steps beyond Earth, such a future would be difficult to predict. Still, within the framework of astrosociology -sociology focused on human activity in space -we can develop a theoretical model of a spacefaring society as an "ideal type," an abstraction that outlines in broad strokes how our society might eventually appear and a reference point for evaluating changes in our society over centuries to come. I. Introduction N the early 1950s, when the V-2 and its variants were the only way to break the shackles of gravity, von Braun, Oberth, Kraft-Ehricke and other scientists teamed with artists, writers, and the media to present the public with awesome visions of our future in space. Lifelike, highly detailed renderings of magnificent interplanetary cruisers and space settlements adorned the cover of major popular magazines of the day, and television viewers were treated to enthralling animations of voyages in space. As Howard McCurdy 1 points out, these efforts did much to generate support for the U.S. space program, but achievements so far have never come close to the high hopes that public relations efforts aroused in the American imagination. The 20th century saw accelerating developments in many areas of technology -transportation (from biplanes to space shuttles), communication (spark coils to cell phones) and information processing (from mechanical calculators to supercomputers). All of this prepared and strengthened the infrastructure for human activity in space. Social change in these areas and others, along with the political pressures of the Cold War, pushed the United States and the Soviet Union toward the first social conditions that put them on track for spacefaring futures. Advancements in developing societies, such as China and India, mirror this development in the 21st century. Given that human communities date back tens of thousands of years and that even "modern societies" have been in existence for five hundred years, the mere half a century since Sputnik was launched is barely a blip on the radar of history. Still, extrapolating from such trends, one possible future for us is a society whose economy, culture and values center on space. Even as many of us have shifted from a local to a global perspective, some of us are starting to view ourselves as citizens of the universe. 2 If this continues, humanity may spread throughout our solar system and beyond, although these shifts would require enormous amounts of time and, to many, seem to have few practical implications for those of us who are alive today. Astrobiology is NASA's attempt to understand the origin and distribution of life in the universe, and our fate on our home planet and beyond. 3,4 Long before the term astrobiology gained ascendance, the physical and biological scientists who dealt with such issues invited the participation of social scientists and humanists, including 2 anthropologists, economists, political scientists, psychologists and sociologists. 5, 6, 7, 8 Astrosociology parallels astrobiology but encompasses the efforts of behavioral and social scientists to further our understanding of space exploration, 9 the search for extraterrestrial life, 10 and the protection of Earth from asteroids and comets. 11 More specifically, astrosociology applies sociology -quite literally, the study of society -to astrobiological issues. Following Alvin Rudoff, 12 the intent is to draw on sociological theory and research to help guide speculation about our future in space. Astrosociology focuses on astrosocial phenomena, or social and cultural patterns related to space, that is, those which express the linkage of human behavior and space. 13, 14 Perhaps the longest and most sustained involvement of behavioral scientists is in the area of manned space exploration. For over forty years, human factors experts, psychiatrists, psychologists, and sociologists have sought to understand individual and group adaptation to space. [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] In the early years these efforts focused on such topics as person-machine fit, conducting work under conditions of microgravity, and the managing the effects of disrupted circadian rhythms and mounting fatigue. Although this traditional human factors research continues, changes in the direction of increasing crew size, crew diversity, and mission duration have prompted extension into such areas as motivation, mental health, group dynamics, intergroup relations, and organizational contexts. Earlier conceptions, such as "psychosocial adaptation" are giving way to behavioral health which includes social relations: ...behavioral health is an overarching concept that subsumes psychological, interpersonal, and cultural adaptation to space. Compared with earlier formulations...behavioral health is less limited in that recognizes that effective, positive behavior depends on an interaction with the physical and social environments, as well as the absence of neuropsychiatric dysfunction. Behavioral health is evident not only at the level of the individual, but also as the levels of the group and organization. Behavioral health is an interdisciplinary field that requires contributions from psychiatry, anthropology, education, sociology, and several fields of psychology. 23