NASA’s Astrobiology Program Ignores Its Own Graduate Conference

Keith’s note: The NASA Astrobiology Graduate Conference (AbGradCon) is underway from 11-13 June at Cornell University. Yet there is no mention of this event at the official NASA Astrobiology website or its event page; at its 827,000+ follower Twitter feed @NASAAstroBio; at the NASA Science Mission Directorate webpage; The NASA STEM Education webpage; NASA+ scheduled events webpage; or even the Cornell University webpage. No email about links was sent out to the NASA Astrobiology mailing list or media. Here is the official AbGradCon webpage. Here are the live webcast links via the NASA Astrobiology YouTube page (that they tell no one about) starting at 9:00am EDT/1:00pm GMT each day: 11 Jun, 12 Jun, 13 Jun. Only NASA could take a subject as potentially profound as Astrobiology – the search for life elsewhere in the universe – and ignore even the most basic rudiments of outreach and public awareness. FWIW David Grinspoon and Lindsay Hayes I am not exactly sure who is in charge of outreach strategy for NASA’s Astrobiology program but they have failed miserably in this instance. Instead of offering access to students nationally – and globally – in what would be a wonderful exercise of soft power – NASA just sits on its hands. Someone needs to fix this.