NASA has a bad habit of making space appear boring.
The luncheon speaker today was from NASA Headquarters, and he spoke for about twenty minutes on the Vision for Space Exploration. He spoke from a canned set of Powerpoint slides, and the tone of his voice exuded detatchment. He seemed more excited when he joked about missing his dessert (which wasn’t that good anyway) than he did when he spoke about exploration of the moon and Mars.
The topic was questionable in the first place (speaking about the “nation’s interest” and how we are a “world power” and as such must be involved) in a room where a sizable percentage of the audience is not American), but even if I ignored that aspect, I couldn’t shake the sinking feeling of listening to someone talk about something that should be exciting! challenging! new! different! and make it sound old. boring. ho-hum. uninspired.
Lately I have seen more and more evidence that NASA needs a spokesperson. NASA needs a PR department. We need to stop using managers to sell our work to the public, and stop using engineers to run our press conferences. Instead, we need a group that can effectively take our message to the media and to the public. Let’s stop deluding ourselves into thinking that we can simply give technical presentations and bureaucratic stump speeches and the public will fall across our feet professing that what we are doing is cool and worthwhile.
NASA needs to sell itself! If the military can use recruitment ads, why can’t NASA? If the Department of Homeland Security can run TV commercials, why can’t NASA? If the Postal Service can sponsor an athletic team, why can’t NASA?
Our message is not getting out there via luncheon keynote speeches in dim rooms showing the same set of slides that every manager must get upon arrival and speaking with a twinge of boredom creeping through.
To convince the public, you have to convince yourself. And then sell it.
sarah, perhaps *you* can start nasa’s PR department — seriously, you could be the vice-admiral of PR, or whatever they call the higher-ups in government agencies (whatever the analogue to a corporate VP would be). wouldn’t that be fun, directing photo shoots and media opportunities with astronauts, shaping the entire agency’s message, etc? i’m serious.
Oh, that would totally be awesome, Chris. It’s a job I would adore. Problem is, NASA is not currently set up for something like that, and the first step would be actually convincing them that they need it in the first place! I’m thinking I should create a non-profit that is in the business of promoting space exploration. Want to fund me? 🙂
You have a good point, however, the USPS actually makes money as it is a private government business. I agree though that sometimes it is best to run government as a business, not always, In things like PR it is justified and should be encouraged. I do think it would be cool for NASA to step up and improve their public perception and bring back the excitement of space.
Yeah, I know USPS can make money and is thus not an ideal comparison, but I thought I’d throw it in anyway.
heh… if i had the money, i would totally fund you!