The birth of the Space Transportation System （STS) and the new era of space activities it

The birth of the Space Transportation System (STS) and the new era of space activities it will bring are contributing to a recent upsurge of social science interest in space. In the years ahead, social scientists will have to investigate systematically the fundamentally new socio/techno-cultural developments that could accompany this new era—not only to point out potential unfavorable impacts before they occur but also to enhance public comprehension of space and its relationships to social matters, and to highlight society's needs in relation to space, pointing out opportunities for development that might otherwise be overlooked by the technologist.

Space industrialization will create new markets and more jobs here on Earth, but many of the space industries of the decades ahead will also require highly qualified workers in habitable orbital facilities. Various concepts of orbiting platforms and space habitats are under continued study by NASA, including man-tended construction systems and permanently manned space stations of modular (组合的) or "building block" design that will grow by steps using the versatile space shuttle. A manned reusable orbital transfer vehicle, which will be used to carry people and cargo to geo-synchronous orbit and eventually to the moon, is also on the drawing board. Space systems currently envisioned by long-range planners can be seen as stepping-stones to large Earth-orbiting and lunar-based space communities and space settlements of the third-millennium (千年), housing hundreds or even thousands of humans.

"Human" industries in space (such as medical, clinical, and biogenetic research), space science and space-borne educational centres, space hospitals, and activities in areas such as entertainment and the arts are long-range possibilities that will eventually be brought within our grasp through the step-by-step development of space. Orbital vacation centres may also be somewhere in the future, adding a whole new dimension to tourism.

Social scientists have recently become greatly interested in space because ______.

A．space industrialization will create new markets and more jobs on Earth

B．space exploration will be harmful to man

C．space colonization is near at hand

D．otherwise technologists will catch the opportunity to go to space