Public Relations Campaigns
Although the general public may not directly influence space exploration policy, the public's blog presence makes non-expert opinions just as accessible as information on the websites of NASA and other authoritative bodies. It is also the public which finances the majority of missions to destinations of interest, and it is the young members of the public who grow to become the policymakers and engineers who follow these missions from start to finish. Therefore it is in the interest of space agencies and other stakeholders who are in the business of exploration to cultivate supporters in their communities using a variety of methods.
NASA’s educational programs
In its 2010 budget estimates, NASA reported that it spent $146.8 million on its education programs in Fiscal Year 2008 and plans to spend $169.2 million in Fiscal Year 2009. These numbers appear small in comparison to the roughly $18 billion which the agency receives each year, but the amount is nontrivial given the concerns the Columbia Accident Investigation Board raised about NASA’s attempts to achieve difficult objectives with inadequate funding. Beyond an analysis of these budget figures, NASA itself explicitly demonstrates on its educational programs website that it is committed to education as a means of encouraging the public’s interest in space exploration:In 2006 and beyond, NASA will continue to pursue three major education goals:
-- Strengthening NASA and the Nation's future workforce
-- Attracting and retaining students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, disciplines
-- Engaging Americans in NASA's mission
Roving Mars IMAX film
Graphics, video, and the experience of “being there” also exemplify attempts on behalf of space agencies and their dependents to engage the public’s interest in exploration programs. One example of such attempts is the IMAX film Roving Mars, which documents the design, construction, launch, and operation of the two Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity. Besides footage of the anthropomorphic rovers undergoing testing at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the film also showcases images of Mars’ surface taken from the rovers’ cameras. By taking the general public on a virtual tour of the Red Planet and suggesting that the presence of water may make human life there possible, Roving Mars inspires the audience with the potential for future missions and possible settlements. Prominent appearances by the director of the JPL and the fact that the film was “presented as a public service” by Lockheed Martin, a prime NASA/JPL contractor, further support the notion that the film served as a public relations tool for the Mars Exploration Rover Mission and those who directly benefit from it.
View Roving Mars trailer
Spaceflightnow.com and Twitter
Websites such as SpaceflightNow enable the general public to follow space missions as they develop. The site containts a “Current Mission” page to keep visitors informed of updates on a mission’s progress, as well as a “Launch Schedule” page where an exhaustive list of international mission launch dates are available.
SpaceflightNow also uses Twitter as a means of disseminating more frequent updates on spaceflight news. In addition, NASA Astronaut Mike Massimino of STS-125 used a Twitter page of his own in May of 2009 to provide the public a sense of what life on the Space Shuttle Atlantis was like during a Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission.
Northrop Grumman Weightless Flights of Discovery
Space agencies such as NASA are not the only organizations who offer educational programs with the goal of promoting an interest in spaceflight. For example, Northrop Grumman offers flights to teachers during which an airplane flies a parabolic trajectory to simulate a zero-gravity environment. By providing educators with the experience of what it is like to fly into space, Northrop Grumman motivates them to enlarge their science and mathematics curricula in better preparing and inspiring students to pursue careers in technical fields. As a contractor on space systems for NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense, Northrop Grumman’s attempts to engage the public via such ventures warrant further study and suggest that its interests go beyond the simple desire to promote science and mathematics in the classroom.
View promotional video and site