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From the time human beings could adequately comprehend their view of the stars in the heavens, they sought to understand what existed beyond the Earth and their own place in the universe. Early in the history of humankind, the longing for traveling to distant worlds accompanied our determination to understand the universe, perhaps starting with a visit to the Moon. As our comprehension of space phenomena became more sophisticated, so too did our realization that space travel and settlement could occur only after solving numerous difficulties. This sophistication followed applications of rocketry in World War II and the following Cold War. Men and women who as children dreamed of traveling to other planets were put to work building the machines of war and participating in a Space Race. This outer space production has motivated weapons systems and reconnaissance systems used for defense and for making war. However, that production has also sent humans to the Moon and generated much scientific knowledge for the benefit of humanity, to include the reconnaissance about weather and the environmental condition of our planet and a level of technology that allows for cellular phone communication and rapid financial transactions. In these ways, humans have been explorers of the Cosmos. There is a cultural imperative to colonize environments beyond the Earth because that is a logical extension of these historical elements. Yet, this cultural imperative to colonize space has slowed in current times. When the Cold War wound down, the years following the United States' Apollo program seemed like a rejection of human space travel to extraterrestrial destinations. However weakly, though, our society still clings to the dream to colonize the Moon and then Mars to learn the lessons necessary to move far beyond both in terms of distance and development. Essential is the vigorous stimulation of this cultural imperative, because outer space production is key to the survival of the human species. I. Introduction: Leaving the Cradle T is probably best to start with Tsiolkovsky's famous quote, usually translated as: "Earth is the cradle of humankind, but one cannot live in the cradle forever." § This sentiment succinctly defines the central argument made here. It refers to the cultural imperative to expand the human presence into new territories in order to allow human populations to improve their social lives. Humans have explored and colonized each of the Earth's land I

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[Abstract]. The STEM acronym emphasizes the renewed desire by space professionals (including NASA) and others involved in education to focus more strongly on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Based on the precipitous decline in the number of students choosing these areas for their future careers, this emphasis seems reasonable. NASA, as the example utilized in this paper, faces a dearth of qualified people in the workforce to replace their aging employee base (as do aerospace corporations). One major problem exists with this effort, however. While it seems as though this approach attempts to improve the composition of the workforce to one favorable to NASA's future hiring practices, it only partially accomplishes this objective. If the future includes a trend in which a growing number of people go into space to work and even live their lives, then STEM suffers from a missing component. The social sciences (which include the behavioral sciences and humanities for the purpose of brevity) will become increasingly important for reasons discussed in this article. Astrosociology consists mainly of social scientists interested in conducting outer space research. It concentrates on psychological, social, and cultural patterns related to space. Astrosociology adds a missing perspective to the space community that can no longer advance without integrating its core concepts, principles, and empirical findings to its future planning. For the space community, the emphasis designated by STEM requires change to STEMA to reflect the addition of astrosociology. This article makes the general case for bringing the social sciences into the space age, and into the space community, in a formal and permanent manner for the benefit of society and space exploration.