What Actual Taxpayers Think About Space Priorities (In One Poll)
Nearly Half the Public Wants the U.S. to Maintain Its Space Dominance. Appetite for Space Exploration Is a Different Story, Morning Consult
“Making space exploration a priority though, even during a pandemic, could bode well for Americans’ morale, Logsdon said, such as what happened with the first moon landing in 1969 that came on the heels of a decade of domestic and international civil unrest. “It was a counter balance to the negativity of the time,” Logsdon said. “If we do inspirational things in space — go back to the moon or travel beyond land rovers on Mars — that gives us a sense of future, a sense of positive achievement to counter the pervasive negativity.” .”
Space policy has never really depended on how popular space exploration is with the public. It’s good that a lot of the more “pure exploration” stuff has at least decent public support, though.
Useless poll. Garbage in garbage out.
The framing of the questions were grounded in ignorance, asking for answers from members of the public who never had any interest in space policy.
Trying to use typical public-opinion-polling techniques about arcane subjects is a waste of everyone’s time. Too often such polls are nothing more than attempts to persuade policy makers with pre-conceived conclusions than a true study of pubic opinion.
Perhaps focus group research might give a better idea of public sentiment on such topics.
SLS delenda est
Excuse me but how could you possibly know that the questions were asked of “members of the public who never had any interest in space policy.”? And then there’s “Trying to use typical public-opinion-polling techniques about arcane subjects is a waste of everyone’s time. ” Gee, this is all paid for by the public. Space is a popular topic. Why on Earth shouldn’t their opinions have relevance? Another example of space advocate elitism.
The consistent message from polls and congressional voting is there is a way for steady spending on human space exploration, but not huge increases. One helpful step would be for both parties to stop proposing constant spending for the immediate future followed by huge increases for the next administration which will never happen.
Making fixed price contracts with Space X, dropping SLS and legacy space, having plans for human visits but not permanent settlement on the moon, and using the Starship for Elon’s plan for initial Mars exploration would all help.