Keith’s note: Yet another example of the global interest in space exploration – between Colombia and Poland – and yet they are half a world apart. Oh yes: note the logo on the boy’s hat. NASA’s reach is global and usually beyond its own understanding since the agency passes on capitalizing on innumerable soft power options to help empower the Artemis Generation – everywhere. The one glaring exception is the NASA Space Apps competition which is only promoted in a substantive way by some portions of NASA SMD – but not the rest of the agency (sadly). This is from A space camp’s cultural exchange, Science (subscription): “The camp’s instructors—including author C.O.D.—had come from Colombia to conduct research at Poland’s Analog Astronaut Training Center (AATC). As the head of the camp, which is run by AATC, I had invited them to share their knowledge with the campers. We worked together to translate the scientific concepts from Spanish to English to Polish. As we planned the lessons, they shared the Colombian traditions of integrating movement, art, music, and ancestral knowledge into scientific work. For example, one activity demonstrated how scientists are extracting the pigments from Colombian fruits and trying to incorporate them into green solvents that could be used to make organic solar panels. During a break, we played salsa music over a loudspeaker and encouraged the campers to dance.” More on NASA branding.

Keith’s Note: If you have read NASAWatch for the past 28+ years then you’ve been reading my rants about lack of quality education and outreach at NASA – regardless of the name that NASA affixes to the office that is supposed to be doing this. NASA has an unparalleled and unvarnished brand identity with decades of embedded global reach that continues to grow unabated. Yet the agency squanders this opportunity by underfunding its educational activities, refusing to coordinate activities internally, and installing managers who do not have formal education administration backgrounds. According to the NASA OIG Audit of NASA’s Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Engagement: “OSTEM’s performance goals are unclear and lack robust metrics, making it difficult to correlate goals to outcomes or measure success” … “OSTEM does not collect comprehensive cost or obligation data that would benefit decision-makers.” … “Furthermore, we identified issues with OSTEM’s monitoring of grants and cooperative agreements, including missing documentation in the grant and cooperative agreement files, insufficient post-award monitoring, and incomplete grant closeouts. Similarly, OSTEM does not track grant subrecipients, relying on prime recipients to ensure subrecipients are aware of award terms and conditions.” … “In our view, NASA may be missing opportunities to invest limited resources in less competitive jurisdictions, and we estimate that $12.6 million could be put to better use within EPSCoR over the next 5 years.” … “OSTEM is missing opportunities to target NASA’s future workforce more directly.”

Keith’s note: I was on Deutsche Welle TV today – twice – once with presenter Phil Gayle. This was my fifth TV appearance this week. I have been on global TV hundreds of times in the past 28 years. Pick a network – I have been on it. Just as the whole notion of talking to millions of people all over the planet becomes something that I do without thinking, I get a comment on my Facebook page that stopped me in my tracks. In this case, it was from someone I have never met – and would likely never meet – Jahwill KaGulda in Soweto, a township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa – thanking me for explaining new technology. Wow. I’m pleased to say that I am still easily humbled by this whole Internet/TV thing – and I hope that I always will be. When I am not, then it is time to turn off the computer. Meanwhile this is motivating in the extreme. An American being interviewed by a Brit on German television prompts someone in Soweto, South Africa to thank us for having taught them something about science. This one Facebook comment is worth more to me than you can possibly know. As Sean O’Keefe was fond of quoting from his Jesuit schooling, he suggested to me that sometimes “you only make one convert at a time”. I guess I did. The Facebook post with the comment by Jahwill KaGulda is below.

Keith’s note: The popularity of space exploration – both real and imagined – is something that those of us in the developed and throughly wired developed world take for granted. What we often do not appreciate is how much of our content leaks out and finds its ways across the rest of the world. And in so doing how it can inspire millions of people – ones that we never stop to think about – to aspire to explore space. [much more below]

Keith’s note: How are we going to train the Artemis Generation for the worlds that they will one day explore? Not just people in the U.S. – but everywhere on Earth where an aspiring space scientist/engineer/explorer is looking for their chance to join in on this adventure? On NASA TV yesterday some NASA folks checked the OSIRIS-REx SRC at its landing site in a remote desert for damage and moved it to a lab – just like a Star Trek Away Team might do. Where do you go to learn how to do field excursions like this? Think about it. There are thousands of locations on Earth that are analogs for the extraterrestrial environments that we might encounter with our droids and/or ourselves. What would it take to have an analog exploration program in every nation? Dylan Taylor and I put some thoughts together here on how to start to address this: “Why The Space Industry Needs A Space College“. More info on the concept can be found here. As the JPLers say ‘Dare Mighty Things’.

Keith’s note: According to “High school shop class is back—and it’s showing students alternatives to ‘traditional college’” on CNBC, “Thirty years ago, high school shop class seemed on track for extinction. As school funding became a matter of standardized test scores in reading and math, the budget tightened for classes that taught woodworking and printmaking. … the priority turned toward securing students spots in four-year degree programs. But with more job openings in the trades and more questions around the value of a four-year college degree, high schools are turning their attention back to equipping the next generation with hands-on technical skills.” OK, am I the only one who sees an opportunity for NASA? Why doesn’t NASA push the building of cubesats in shop class instead of napkin holders? You can buy cubesat kits for a few thousand dollars – and much if not all of the tech specs needed can be found online – with components 3D-printed or bought on eBay. The future of space utilization is not just ‘rocket science’ anymore. We’re going to need a much wider array of skills on Earth and offworld in the decades ahead for the Artemis Generation. Where are these new “space collar” jobs going to be taught? According to NASA elementary schools have already done this. Just sayin’

Keith’s note: According to a tweet by NASA SMD Nicky Fox the other day “Fun Friday night build – some tense moments when I managed to dislodge a critical piece in the sample arm gears but all good eventually! @LEGO_Group @NASAJPL @NASAPersevere and #Ingenuity in the house! @LaurieofMars you may be disappointed by the underside 😉🙃”. Too bad cool STEM education things like this conducted by two of the top female scientists running NASA – JPL Director Laurie Leshin and SMD AA Nicky Fox – go totally unnoticed by NASA Public Affairs, PAO AA Marc Etkind and Education AA Mike Kincaid. Don’t you have a Space Act Agreement LEGO? You used to have one. There is a NASA JPL Mars rover logo on the box that Nicky is holding. Gee, how did that get there? No mention of this outreach opportunity has been made by @NASA (74.9 million followers) or @NASAJPL (3.8 million followers). According to Local Community Engagement at LEGO “Our local community engagement program currently operates in 31 countries, and we are working hard to expand it even further.” Amazon is filled with NASA-themed LEGO products. More than 220 million LEGO sets are sold globally each year. You would think that someone in a position to make creative and strategic decisions would have a way to coordinate nascent outreach opportunities like this. NASA has one of the largest, most ubiquitous branding visibilities on Earth – and it is 100% positive, exiting, proactive, diverse – and hopeful. As such one would think that working with another equally visible entity (LEGO) would only result in a synergistic visibility for the common values shared by both. NASA can certainly get far greater reach than this. But the people responsible for doing so must have to want to see this happen. Oh yes another female leader at NASA Technology, Policy and Strategy AA Bhavya Lal is totally into LEGO as well. If NASA leadership is into the same thing as hundreds of million of people around the world isn’t this something to utilize as an outreach tool? Missed opportunities. Just sayin’.

Keith’s note: FYI NASA Public Affairs – the next time you try to understand your audiences for the whole outreach thing – based on the reality of U.S. demographics i.e. outside of 20546, 77058, 35812, 32953, etc. – keep this map in mind. Just sayin’.

According to NASA PAO: “NASA and the U.S. Department of Education signed a memorandum of understanding on Wednesday, strengthening the collaboration between the two agencies, including efforts to increase access to high-quality STEM and space education to students and schools across the nation.” Keith’s note: Curious fact: Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and I are both from Meriden, Connecticut. In fact he was principal of Hanover Elementary School – which he had once attended – and where I was also student (before his time during the Apollo years). He used to come into the public library in Meriden where my mother worked at the reference desk. He later accomplished much as he rose through the ranks in Meriden and later for the entire state of Connecticut. He is one of those people you simply never hear anything about except high praise. NASA has an incredible range of inspirational things and a global reach – both of which the agency rarely uses to its fullest potential. If anyone can help NASA achieve its true educational potential it is Secretary Cardona.

Keith’s note: Check out “Using Robotic Telescope-Based Observing Experiences to Boost STEM Enrollments and Majors on a National Scale“: “Funded by a $3M Department of Defense (DoD) National Defense Education Program (NDEP) award, we are developing and deploying on a national scale a follow-up curriculum to “Our Place In Space!”, or OPIS!, in which approx. 3,500 survey-level astronomy students are using our global network of “Skynet” robotic telescopes each year.” If NASA’s Education Office (or whatever goofy name they call it now) really stayed on top of all space and astronomy related STEM education stuff then they’d certainly be expected to have a willingness to showcase allied efforts outside of NASA. Well, not so much. I did a search for this project and NASA – on Google and NASA’s own website and turned up nothing. You’d think that NASA Education, the OIIR, SMD and whomever is involved with students, astronomy, and other government agencies, would see this as a “rising tide lifts all boats” thing in an “all of government” way. Guess again.