NASA's STEM Office Ignores A Cool NASA STEM Publication
NASA Releases Interactive Graphic Novel “First Woman”
“We crafted this graphic novel and digital ecosystem to share NASA’s work in a different and exciting way,” said Derek Wang, director of communications for the Space Technology Mission Directorate at the agency’s Headquarters in Washington. “We set out to make the content both engaging and accessible. From space fans of all ages to hardworking educators looking for new ways to get students excited about STEM, we hope that there is something for everyone to enjoy.”
Keith’s 25 September note: This graphic novel is nicely done. NASA put a press release out about it on a Saturday – usually a dead day for news media – but it was National Comic Book Day – so it got some extra visibility. @NASA with its 40 million-plus Twitter followers even got in on the promotion. NASA.gov features it prominently. This is a STEM education-focused product from the Space Technology Mission Directorate at NASA HQ – not the NASA STEM Engagement Office. As such (predictably) the NASA STEM Engagement Office website makes no mention of it.
Keith’s 27 September note: It took them 2 days but they updated the NASA STEM website. Let’s see if they conduct any meaningful promotion for this graphic novel – or just say something – once.
I notice the picture resembles the female moon-walker’s Time Magazine cover in the recent Brazilian animation ‘capture the flag’. Probably a coincidence.
I wonder if the sole focus on a female on the Moon doesn’t alienate the other 50% of the population?
I doubt it. Certainly no more than half a century of only sending males to the Moon during “manned spaceflight” missions.
We only sent men to the Moon for a five year period from 68 to 72 and that was fifty years ago. We’ve been recruiting women astronauts for 45 years.
I am not at all certain what point you are trying to make = based on your initial post.
I can’t say what Richard was saying exactly, but I too paused with your initial response to his post. As he notes, we only sent men to the Moon 1968-1972 but your phrasing suggests that we sent them for more than half a century.
It seemed like you meant to say ‘only sending males into space”…or something similar. OR…there’s more words behind or attached to what you wrote than those on the page…which I certainly could be missing.
Most people alive today have only known a world where humans have walked on the Moon, but until now it has only been men. This situation has existed for over half a century. I took Keith’s comment to mean that men are not likely to feel alienated if there is some extra attention on the first woman on the Moon. Or at least they shouldn’t be. True not all of it can be blamed on sexism considering that no one has been to the Moon since the early seventies. However that doesn’t change the point about whether or not men should feel alienated. Did men feel alienated by all of the attention on Sally Ride and Eileen Collins?
I didn’t even think of interpreting the comment as humans have been continuously landing on the Moon for the past fifty plus years, because only some of our clueless young adults might think that, like the ones who think humans have already landed on Mars. Considering that the comment came from someone who worked for NASA, and who also retrieved and restored data from 1960’s Moon probes, it didn’t occur to me to interpret it differently.
That’s a lot of words hidden in a sentence that says (literally, as I noted) something different and contrary to actual history. I am well aware Keith knows better than what his words literally stated, which was the point of my post.
Profoundest apologies for my destiny, er, density. I am obviously in the presence of a dizzyingly superior intellect.
Why should it when the stats say that ⅔ of NASA’s astronaut corps is male (as of May, 2020)? The US census bureau says that 50.8% of the population is female.
So why, again, should men fell alienated by this graphic novel? Is making up ⅔ of the astronaut corps not enough? Are boys not able to be inspired by a female character that’s an astronaut? I’m confused at to where this “alienating” factor is.
Cool!