When I was young, watching a space shuttle launch was exciting. Sometimes teachers would even bring a TV to my elementary school classrooms so we could watch launches as they happened and inevitably discuss outer space and the future of manned space travel. Over time, however, shuttle launches became routine, and with few exceptions (such as the success of the mars rover) space exploration became a bit… Boring.
While by all accounts a successful program, the shuttle has also had technical problems that have resulted in the loss of life: Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003, the latter as a result of an issue with the insulating foam that protects the craft on re-entry. The problem hasn’t been completely fixed, which led the LA Times to issue an editorial urging NASA to “abort” flights until the remaining craft are repaired, finishing with a rather strong condemnation of the program:
Each shuttle mission costs about $450 million for a few days in low-Earth orbit. An awe-inspiring blastoff by Discovery on Saturday could make many people forget about the price. But it won’t change the fact that the shuttle is an unsafe, expensive way for humans to explore space just a few hundred miles above Earth. The problem with the shuttle isn’t chunks of foam, it’s the shuttle itself. NASA should mothball the program and put the nation’s scientific and technological expertise to better use.
I can’t tell you how often I hear arguments in favor of using NASA money for terrestrial programs. Many of those people call space exploration “a waste.”
Now, by all accounts, I’m a total geek, and I genuinely get excited by scientific discoveries- As such, I should be psyched for the space program. The only problem is, before researching this post, I had absolutely no idea what kind of experiments NASA does in space, and how humans on earth have benefited. Now, I may be simply ignorant, but why didn’t I know the space program was responsible for the CT scan, cellular phones and long-range weather forecasting? Those are major technologies that have greatly helped me.
As a government organization, NASA is reliant on taxpayer funding, but they aren’t doing a good job of telling the public what they get for their money. NASA should make more of an effort tell the public why the work they do is important, and why the public should support them. They have a slick Web site, but it’s rather impersonal. Why not create a blog that can be updated by the Discovery astronauts from space (is such a thing technically possible)? NASA also has a television channel, why not a documentary program about “Space Technology and People’s Everyday Lives?” Do NASA officials mention how missions will specifically benefit humanity at press conferences? Maybe they do, but I can’t remember watching a NASA press conference that didn’t follow a tragedy.
To sum up an already ridiculously long post (sorry), I’d like NASA PR to focus on these three areas:
1. Do a better job of telling us why the benefits of a shuttle mission outweigh the risks.
2. Give us a personal stake in the mission. Let us get to know the astronauts, why they’re on the shuttle, how they got there and what they hope to accomplish.
3. Tell us what experiments are taking place and how these experiments will help enrich life on Earth. Remind us of all the useful technology we use everyday that comes from the space program or research that actually took place in space.
NASA’s public relations department needs to do more than damage control in the wake of a crisis. (Let me know in the comments if you feel they’re going a good job.) Until they publicize practical reasons for the space program (of which there are plenty) and help citizens feel a personal stake in the program, they shouldn’t be surprised to see further denouncement of the costly-yet-valuable space program on editorial pages or around water coolers in offices around the country.
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