Saw a thread about it on NSF.com, and I thought it would open an interesting discussion for you guys.
Title states topic.
Title states topic.
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You have to use fear. Fear of the USSR got us to the moon in the old days. Now if we can only convince the public that Al Queada will kill us all unless we return to the moon...
And no, I'm not joking. Well, not completely, anyway (China is the modern day strawman we use, not AQ).
A government-run space program is a giant political target unless it serves some sort of purpose that is perceived to benefit the nation, and which can not be acheived by private or commercial means. I am a space geek, and other space geeks can't even convince me, let alone "Joe Public"...which brings me to another topic:
Your post indicates you think that the public is made up of unintelligent or uninformed people. Use of terms like "Joe Public" and references to believing only Fox News, for instance. This shows an elitist or arrogant attitude on your part, and reduces your desire to fund spaceflight from something nobel to a cynical attempt to talk people you have no respect for into paying for your spaceflight fantasies, and justifying it with the idea that it is for their own good, since they are too stupid to pay for it voluntarily.
I'm 18 :lol:, I'm hardly the type to have an elitist agenda. Arrogant? Maybe, I'd say more or less generalizing, perhaps a tad bit laced with sarcasm as well .
I suppose though, I'll edit out the original post, to avoid that sense of being perceived to have any sort of arrogant motive.
NASA needs to do a better job of reaching out to the public in matters of science. Not necessarily PR about launching shuttles or building rockets, or astronauts going to schools and reciting their pre-programmed responses to how people go to the toilet in space, or Sagan-esque cosmologising. But an approachable manner of illustrating what gains are being brought from work done in space- like how the ISS has contributed to research into vaccines, for example. People aren't stupid or vehemently anti-science. They're just not made aware of the things that they could be. And the more you know, the better you realise realise something's value.