Arm Waving Space Advocates
Getting strange emails with wacky conspiratorial arm waving language from the "Space Development Steering Committee" – a "group" that brags about its membership but refuses to identify all of its members when asked. Just what space advocacy needs right now.
— NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) August 10, 2018
It appears to have been started by a man named Howard Bloom.
The SDC would basically be Howard Bloom. He created it back in 2006 but seems to be trying to reboot it. I have been seeing those emails for the last couple of months.
Since they call themselves a “steering committee” could you shed some light on who they are steering? Do they provided guidance to any specific organizations, institutions or companies? That is the usual meaning of a steering committee.
Howard Bloom is/was working with the National Space Sociey, the Space Frontier Foundation and Mars Society, but I not sure just how much steering he does… I think he is still on the Board of Governors of the NSS, at least his bio is still there if you google it and makes interesting reading.
I have made repeated requests for the 117 members the claim to have – all they say is that I may have met them at meetings. They list a few people who may – or were – associated with the group like Edgar Mitchell who is dead. You can’t get a straight answer from these people. Makes me suspicious.
They are getting increasingly loony.
Yes, Howard Bloom appears to have taken the election of President Trump much harder then most of Hillary Clinton’s supporters. His views on space policy appear to be reflecting it.
I told them to stop sending me this nonsense last night.