Support for Space Falling, Space Habitation Looks More Impossible

Two articles have come out that have disturbed me. First, and article titled 50% Favor Cutting Back on Space Exploration dropped a bomb shell on the space community. It can be expected because of NASA’s growing pains with Ares. However, the number has grown 6%. That’s ok, but what is troubling is that “Women and Americans ages 18 to 29 are more strongly in support of cutting back on space exploration than are men and older adults.”

So, basically, NASA is losing youth support. But, wait, this week has only begun.

There is a bill called Control Spending Now Act that would delay the constellation program for 5 years.

This week has been a deadly blow. According to the 21st Century Waves article Young People, Long Waves, and a Glimpse of Their Coming Space Age

Using this model [Maslow Window Theory], and assuming the 2015 Maslow Window will culminate near 2025, the Apollo astronaut analogs — possibly the first Mars explorers — were born near 1985; they’re called “Millennials.” They graduated from high school near 2002 and college near 2006; some will get PhDs soon.

So, right now, the people going to Mars are about 25, but, that group is losing support of space exploration…

Well, at least the people at NASA have good health insurance because we need to keep them around for a really long time. (What is this “retirement” you speak of.) Now, we can’t even get people excited because NASA lacks a flag ship rocket. Yes, I know, NASA will keep launching stuff, but people barely cared about shuttle launches, now one is going to care about the other stuff they send up. So, in my completely unresearch opinion, very few people will care about NASA until they get Ares online.

So, this means that fewer kids are going into STEM undergrad programs with the hope of going into the space field and NASA can’t put on a light show to inspire more kids.

In Case You Skimmed

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Reactions

-Do you think the space industry will have enough workers in its next generation?

-Will Ares launches really fix this problem?

Resources

Cordell, Bruce, “Young People, Long Waves, and a Glimpse of Their Coming Space Age” Weblog entry. 21st Century Waves. July 11, 2009. January 18, 2010 <http://21stcenturywaves.com/2009/07/11/young-people-long-waves-and-a-glimpse-of-their-coming-space-age/>.

Foust, Jeff, “Feingold bill would delay Constellation” Weblog entry. Space Politics. January 18, 2010. January 18, 2010 <http://www.spacepolitics.com/2010/01/18/feingold-bill-would-delay-constellation/>

Rasmussen Reports, “50% Favor Cutting Back on Space Exploration” Weblog entry. Rasmussen Reports. January 15, 2010. January 18, 2010 <http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/lifestyle/general_lifestyle/

january_2010/50_favor_cutting_back_on_space_exploration>

Space Settlement, Social Media and Blogging

Happy Space Settlement Blog Day. Today we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon lands, not with a party on Moon Base Alpha, but with writing blog posts explaining why we should build a space settlement, about space habitation and on space settlement in general...

Yea... go humanity... we are so... epic... -.-

(Nothing against Space Settlement Blog Day, it's a cool idea, but humanity has epic failed by leaving the moon's surface for so long. The National Space Society is great, humanity epic fails. We should be partying on the moon.)

So, I'm going to tell you how social media and blogs will convince humanity of the importance of space settlement. Today, Problogger posted this...

This where Problogger got this image. 100% of this sample of 500 went online with the intention to pass time; in other words, they went online because THEY WERE BORED. However, only 26% of the sample went online because they wanted to join a cause. So, how do blogs and social media fit into promoting the idea of space habitation and recruiting more members into the space movement? Blogs about space habitation and blogs which talk about space habitation occasionally are very good at connecting to bored people who want to educate themselves or do research for fun. The very best blogs break down complex subjects and make them easy fro the average reader to grasp. If we could draw in a few bored (you have to be really bored to read my blog) people with space settlement blogs and educate them on the subject of space settlement, then we have planted a seed. They may not activate their support then and there, but they will not be opposed to the idea of space settlement with an effective blog; with an effective argument.

This is why I believe that whenever someone is against this idea of space settlement or against funding NASA or against manned space flight in general, it is my fault and the space community's fault. 96% of the people who go on the Internet go on the Internet with the intention for educating themselves. We have to grab that by the horns, we have a audience who will stay around if we teach them because they want to be taught. Blogs, with their oven fresh content, keep bringing in these people who want to learn. Blogs tap into this wandering student; the common Internet user don't wander to NASA's website. Ok, maybe some do, but blogs are geared toward this wandering audience because are jobs is to translate technical writing into non-technical writing. The common Internet user is less likely to wander into a NASA study and read it then a blog reporting on the study. Hopefully, the blog will present the study in a way that the wonderer will read.

What social media and blogs provide the space community with is one of the most effective tools we could ever have; we can provide anyone with the slightest interest in space settlement an expert in the field, or at least a space cadet like me, to have a one-on-one conversation. Recently, I got a Google alert from someone asking on his Live Journal "what's the point of space settlement". I was able to tweet this request and get the many space cadets on twitter to give him an answer, a very clear answer. That's the power we hold with the tools the Internet provides us. We can also craft a more convincing argument for space settlement...

And the premise of "The Wisdom of Crowds" is that, under the right conditions, groups can be remarkably intelligent. And they can actually often be smarter than even the smartest person within them. The simplest example of this is that if you ask a group of people to do something like, guess how many jelly beans are in a jar. You know, if I had a jar of jelly beans, and I asked you to guess how many jelly beans were in that jar,  your average guess would be remarkably good. It would be somewhere probably within three and five percent of the number of beans in the jar,  and it would be better than 90 to 95 percent of you. There may be one or two of you who are brilliant jelly bean guessers, but for the most part the group's guess would be better than just about all of you. And what's fascinating is that you can see this phenomenon at work in many more complicated situations.

So, for instance, if you look at the odds on horses at a racetrack, they predict almost perfectly how likely a horse is to win. In a sense, the group of betters at the racetrack is forecasting the future, in probabilistic terms.  ~James Surowiecki on the turning point for social media

You see, with all these blogs about space and space settlement, we will find out what the public likes and does not like. We can demo new ideas and the ideas which fail are not the ones which will make space settlement reality. In fact, the best blog post submitted for Space Settlement Blog Day should be turned into a pamphlet because it will be one of our better arguments. But, we do have a problem...

So, the ant colony is a great model -- you have all these little parts that collectively add up to a great thing. But we know that occasionally ants go astray, and what happens is that, if army ants are sort of wandering around and they get lost, they start to follow a simple rule -- just do what the ant in front of you does.  And what happens is that the ants eventually end up in a circle. And there's this famous example of one that was 1,200 feet long and lasted for two days, and the ants just kept marching around and around in a circle until they died. ~James Surowiecki on the turning point for social media

So, blogs could bring the death of the space movement. We might end up retweeting and linking to a deadly idea for the movement. This can be adverted by making sure everyone knows where they are going, but the possibility is still there.

So, in short, blogs can create a discussion about space settlement and that is what will get this idea engrained in humanity's culture. If space settlement becomes a cultural goal of humanity, it is sure to happen.

Reactions

-What other disadvantages can blogs bring to the space movement?

-Have you participated in a discussion of space settlement on the web? How did it go?

Resources

"rfIntentindex" Ruder Finn Intent Index. rfrelate. Article date unknown. Web. 7/20/09

Surowiecki, James. "James Surowiecki on the turning point for social media" Nov. 2008. Online video clip. TED. 7/20/09.

In Case You Skimmed

-The people on the Internet are all willing to listen to our pitch

-Bored people tend to go to blogs

-Blogs and social media can create conversations about space settlement

-These conversations will make the space movement stronger

Space Advocacy for the Space Cadet

I'm going to write an E-book called Space Advocacy for the Space Cadet. This idea was inspired by Problogger's 31 Days to a Build a Better Blog. I want to make a collection of 60 daily tasks that will made the reader a better space advocate. I am giving this book out for free and it will be under a Creative Commons license. This page will serve as a hub for this project.

Do you want to help?

Great, I plan to have a draft ready by July 31st. If you feel like helping me edit it, write a comment to this post. I need help hosting the PDF, so if you want to distribute this E-book, post a comment. If you want to contribute a a task... you guessed it. If you want more privacy, I have a contact form set-up.

People helping

I posted a request for help on Help A Reporter Out and these people have been helping me:

~The Coalition for Space Exploration provided me with information on space advocacy and NASA's effect on society

~The makers of the astronomy software Redshift 7 have made themselves available for interviews

~Dr. Charles E. Gannon is occasionally consulting me on some of the aspects of the project

Release date: October 4th, 2009

Mark your calendars for October 4th, 2009, the anniversary of a major spark in space exploration, Sputnik 1. Prepare to be reignited*.

*Corn not included