ABSTRACT

This short book grapples with two vast questions: the nature of our minds, and our place in the wider universe. It considers how one mutually influences the development of the other.

The changes and challenges that will accompany the first humans to leave Earth and travel to another planet, or even further, will not only impact our technical capabilities, but will also represent a watershed moment within our individual and collective human psychology. Many of the problems of resource use, environmental degradation, and waste or destructive processes are contained in the larger process of exploring another environment and planet. But This book also offers a shift in perspective that allows us to consider humanity from an alternative, more holistic perspective, reappraising our own minds both individually and within dynamic social processes.

The Psychology of Space Exploration considers our place and purpose in the widest possible perspective, that of space exploration and the natural universe. It doesn’t seek to answer these questions, but provides a perspective to explore even further.

chapter 1|2 pages

Introduction

chapter 2|2 pages

Introduction II

chapter 6|24 pages

Space exploration in the tension between cooperation and sublimation

Finding collective points of working through cultural anxieties

chapter 9|6 pages

Radical transformations in concept and development of technology

Space as applied measure of human maturation

chapter 10|4 pages

Mutual evolution of concepts

New paradigms for the future of human development

chapter 12|3 pages

Conclusion