Hey NASA: The Artemis Generation Is Global
Understanding NASA’s Global Reach, SpaceRef (earlier post)
“A young boy in Chile wearing a NASA t-shirt explains a computer game to Pete Worden from Breakthrough Initiatives. How did he get that t-shirt? Why is he wearing it? So why is a boy wearing a NASA t-shirt in the Atacama region of Chile? Worden did not know. I have a theory. In 2010 NASA was instrumental in rescuing 33 Chilean miners who had been trapped in the San José copper mine. The mine is located near Copiapó, Chile. Parnal Observatory, where the VLT is located is 411 Km north of Copiapó a town with a population of 200,000. La Serena, the town where this photo was taken, is located 349 km south of Copiapó and also has a population of over 200,000. These locations are all connected by the same road (Route 5). I would have to assume that NASA remains a very popular entity in the region after the mine rescue – popular enough that its logo is something that children want to wear.”
Keith’s note: I have posted a link to this story many times. It involves a boy in Chile wearing a NASA logo t-shirt. Check out the tweet below. Apparently there are others in Chile who follow what NASA and SpaceX – have been doing lately. Yet another example of NASA’s global reach. Oddly, NASA never talks about this global reach except to say it is big and broke records (sound familiar?). I have asked NASA for some detailed statistics about their reach during Demo-2. I got a few numbers about YouTube. Nothing about Internet reach in terms of country statistics, Twitter impressions, etc. You know – the sort of things that can show just how truly global NASA’s reach is – with real numbers. But it is more than numbers. It is also about action. Why not retweet this tweet from Chile? It is non-controversial and inspirational. But NASA doesn’t do that sort of thing. NASA has a vast, and mostly unappreciated global reach – a reach NASA itself simply does not understand or know how to fully utilize.
See “The True Extent Of NASA’s Reach During The Demo-2 Launch”
My daughter in her own Crew Dragon!! We had a successful launch from Chile! @SpaceX @NASA #LaunchAmerica @AstroBehnken pic.twitter.com/RzGJ3EGLbQ
— FW (@FishWilson) June 7, 2020
What NASA really needs is a good media vision and strategic plan. But sadly tech organizations usually ignore doing them because they don’t think they are important. And if they do develop one they usually hire some consulting firm that has no clue about what they do and just write them a boiler plate one.
Yup.
With hundreds of millions of kids around the world, 100 million in the US alone, and most using distance learning for several months now-maybe for a lot longer, the time is right for a bold new initiative to develop resources like lessons about space and make them available. Lessons about the space environment. Lessons about space engineering. Lessons about human physiology in space. Lessons about space history. Lessons about future space goals. NASA is the appropriate bunch to develop and provide them. NASA needs to organize them. NASA needs to make them accessible. NASA needs to ask the right questions. The next generation will then provide the right answers. NASA seems to do none of this.
Exactly.
I saw recently that NASA estimated the audience for last week’s Dragon launch, which was the biggest event in years, was in the 100,000 range. They consider that a great success. They have a captive audience of 75 million students, plus their teachers, instructors, professors, and parents. But these seems to be of no interest.
If NASA had these lessons structured by age, field of study and subject, they could use this as the basis for the structure their website is lacking. Right now they seem to organize by directorate, program and project, which is convenient for NASA but which makes it disorganized for anyone else, and it also means it leaves out anything in the past-they are only focused on current and a bit on the future. Most of the reason NASA is one of the world’s leading brands is because of past missions and achievements. Maybe they need to get someone who not only has some actual education credentials the lead the effort (instead of an HR budget analyst), but who actually knows something about NASA? Maybe that kind of person does not exist?
It isn’t just because it’s more convenient for NASA. It’s how their budget works. NASA does not get much money for outreach and education, at least not directly. And even that has been at risk in some proposed budgets. (With words like “NASA is not the Department of Education.”) NASA projects, however, do have some money for outreach and education. So what NASA along those lines is funded and structured around current projects, programs and directorates. If we want to change that, as I think we should, we need a serious restructuring. It would mean establishing a real, serious education program (perhaps as its own Directorate), pulling the funding from individual projects and centralizing it. It would also mean someone with the clout to make the PI, projects, and centers stop using education and outreach a part of their own PR programs.
Department of Education mainly just hands out money. They tried establishing universal curriculum guidelines a few years ago and most states would not accept them. Even those states that did accept them did not implement the curriculum if there was inadequate funding, which was frequent. NASA does have a separate STEM ‘directorate’. They do not really seem to produce much of value. They could serve a useful purpose of the programs, which get the money, sent a percentage to a central organization, like education, to establish and uniform and organized web system with educational content of value to schools, teachers and students. NASA has no shortage of the right kinds of people; they just need to organize them effectively.
About twenty years ago there was a children’s TV program produced by Langley called The NASA “Why?” Files which had some kids known as the tree-house detectives (ethnically diverse by the way) who would solve mysteries they came across in their everyday lives using the scientific method. It was shown on NASA channel and PBS and even won a couple of regional Emmy awards for best children’s series.
I guess it was easier at the center level to produce something of that quality, where people who actually understood education could make something both entertaining and informative and get kids interested in science at an early age.
I travel and work in Central and South America, and I see NASA shirts or logos everywhere. After the COVID mess, I’ll be heading back, this time will take pictures for our host.
NASA to them is uniformly emblematic of the best, and of what is possible. We are, to some extent, jaded in America; but these kids keep the dream alive. They light up when mentioning NASA.