THE JOURNAL OF ASTROSOCIOLOGY VOLUME 1

discoveries. In 2011, a special issue of Astropolitics helped delineate the scope, prospects, andgoals of astrosociology, including research, outreach, and education elements (Hearsey, 2011).Although astrosociology melds different interests, each field brings its own characteristicorganizing concepts and research tools to the table. Anthropologists draw on culture, anamalgam of technology, symbols, and meanings as an organizing and explanatory concept fortheir efforts. Sociologists dwell on societies and their institutions such as government, economy,religion, family, and education. Sociologists are interested in both abstract social structures andprocesses, and in their representations within the individual. Psychologists are interested incognition, emotion, attitudes, behaviors, and interpersonal relationships, among other topics.II.Astrosociology and AstrobiologyAs Jim Pass has demonstrated, astrobiology is a fertile ground for astrosociology (Pass,2011, 2012). Astrobiology is NASA’s program for studying the origins, distribution, and futureof life in the universe. As explained by the historian Steven J. Dick, astrobiology has beenconsistent with the NASA Charter since 1958, and the life sciences, including biology andmedicine, have been prominent in NASA-sponsored research (Dick, 2013; Dick and Strick,2005). One early NASA program – exobiology, the study of life beyond Earth – was built on acombination of physical science (e.g. astronomy, planetary science, and geology) and biologicalscience (e.g. evolutionary biology, microbiology, and genetics). In the late 1990s, astrobiologyemerged at NASA-Ames Research Center (NASA-ARC) in the course of a NASA-widereorganization (Dick and Strick, 2005). This was an exciting era marked by the discovery of thefirst extrasolar planets, rapid progress in genetics including modeling the human genome, andaccelerating searches for extraterrestrial life. The introduction of a NASA AstrobiologyRoadmap presented a new conceptual framework, organizational structure, governing principles,and goals for studying life in the universe (Des Marais et al., 2008). Most importantly, it addedthe social sciences and humanities to the intellectual mix, recognizing that astrobiology hasenormous implications for cultures, societies, and people (Dick and Strick, 2005). A revisedNASA Astrobiology Roadmap was unveiled in 2008, and it is this version that is in force today(Des Marais et al., 2008).a. The Science RoadmapThe NASA astrobiology science roadmap recognizes that astrobiology is amultidisciplinary effort. It encourages keeping Earth and other planets alive and healthy, andpromotes education and outreach to inspire the next generation of scientists and inform thecitizenry (Des Marais et al., 2008). Astrobiology includes not only most or all of “thefundamental questions in biology, physics, and chemistry, but also in philosophy, psychology,religion, and the way in which humans interact with their environment and each other” (Dominikand Zarnecki, 2011: 369). Of course, NASA is not alone in such interests. From its inception,NASA’s Astrobiology Institute (a virtual institute) has included international partners (Dick andStick, 2005). The European Space Agency has a comparable program known as the CosmicVision Plan (Fridlund, 2011). In the UK, the British Interplanetary Society has done much tofurther the interests of space exploration and the search for extraterrestrial life (Macauley, 2012)© 2015 Astrosociology Research Institute12