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NASA Seeks to Reverse Youth Apathy
Tactics encouraged by the workshop included new forms of communication, such podcasts and YouTube; enlisting support from celebrities, such as actors David Duchovny ("X-Files") and Patrick Stewart ("Star Trek: The Next Generation"); forming partnerships with youth-oriented media such as MTV or sports events such as the Olympics and NASCAR; and developing brand placement in the movie industry.
Outside groups have offered ideas too, such as making it a priority to shape the right message about the next-generation Orion missions.
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And NASA should take a hint from Hollywood, some suggested.
"The American public engages with issues through people, personalities, celebrities, whatever," said George Whitesides, executive director of the National Space Society, a space advocacy group. "When you don't have that kind of personality, or face, or faces associated with your issue, it's a little bit harder for the public to connect."
He said the agency could pick the crews for the moon and Mars trips earlier so the public can connect the faces with the far-off missions of the future.
"You can take advantage of these personalities and these stories about triumph over adversity to create heroes, if you will," said workshop leader Peggy Finarelli, a former NASA official who is now a researcher at George Mason University.
Others recommend developing a junior astronaut training corps similar to the ROTC; marketing through podcasts or ring tones; and offering zero-gravity flights to winners of contests like the Little League World Series.
But embracing YouTube is no guarantee that NASA will get the results it wants.
Ali Kuwait, 19, who is studying civil engineering at Brevard Community College, said he recently watched a clip on YouTube that made a convincing case that NASA's moon landings between 1969 and 1972 were faked.
Repeating an old myth that NASA hasn't been able to kill, Kuwait said: "The moon thing was not real."
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On the Net:
NASA: http:/
Dittmar Associates: http:/
George Mason University's Aerospace Policy Research Center:
