Zeitschrift für Astrobiologie und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit

Abstrakt

Understanding the Life Experience in Space Settlements with Inpatients and Social Sciences

Jianxun Shen*

Plans to send crews to other celestial bodies, particularly the Moon and Mars, are put into action by a number of space agencies. Thus, it is an imminent research theme to study the daily life experience of future space migrants. The inpatient department is an outstanding analog of isolated and confined environments such as the real space settlements. Partially supported by external sources, the inpatient department can be deemed an ecosystem that is not fully self-sustainable, and thus it is the analog of the early stage of space settlement developments when in-situ resource utilization systems are not completely developed. Medical anthropology and sociology can significantly contribute to the understanding of the body, mental, and social reproduction within the in-hospital space analog ecosystem. Various potential issues during the development of space settlements can be inspected and predicted with the practice of well-established topics in medical social sciences, including medicalization, ecology and new diseases, subjectivity and identity, embodiment and narrative, acculturation, alienation, functionalism and new social institutions, biopolitics, and STS (Science, Technology, and Society). The combined applications of astrobiology and medical social sciences will bring unprecedented opportunities to the development of both disciplinary regimes and possibly the society itself.