Jose took me to the symphony last Friday night to hear them perform Holst’s “The Planets” while they showed imagery from Voyager and the Hubble on two big screens above the orchestra. It was very cool to hear “Mars” while flying through Valles Marineris, and “Jupiter” while watching the Great Red Spot whirl and swirl.
It was also very cool to get dressed up and go out on the town, even if my Vomit Comet physiological training and the fact that I wasn’t done until after 5:30 meant that our “romantic dinner” consisted of stopping at Whataburger on the way home and eating it on my coffee table. 😉
This was the first time I’ve seen the Houston Symphony and they did not disappoint. What did disappoint me, however, was the imagery used in the slideshow. It didn’t appear to be something the Symphony itself put together, and so perhaps the responsibility doesn’t lie with them, but the photos were quite out of date. Stunning, yes, but dated — I estimate that it must have been made about 10 years ago. There were a few photos from Mars Pathfinder (1996), but the images of the outer planets were all from Voyager and Pioneer. There were none of Galileo’s amazing images of Jupiter and its moons (or Venus, which it flew by) from the late 1990s. There were none of Cassini’s stunning photos of Saturn and Titan from its past two years in orbit there. And there were none of Spirit and Opportunity’s awesome pictures of the surface of Mars.
I doubt most of the audience even noticed. But that, combined with Space Day on Saturday, has had me thinking about NASA’s public image lately.
Space Day was held Saturday at the George Observatory, a small observatory about an hour away from Clear Lake in Brazos Bend State Park. I went to take photos, but I listened to a lot of the presentations as well. First up was “Mad Science” from the Houston Museum of Natural Science, with an hour-long session led by the very engaging Dr. Molecule. He lit things on fire! He made fog! He sucked an egg into a flask! It was fun, it was entertaining, and the kids loved it.
A little later, an astronaut spoke. He stood at the front of the room and showed some Powerpoint slides with neat photos of training and his mission. He used big words and long sentences. He called it a “manipulator” instead of a robot arm. He said the shuttle has “very poor aerodynamic performance” on entry instead of saying it drops like a brick. He didn’t invite interaction from the kids.
Everything he said was entirely precise and technically accurate. And everything he said sounded boring.
The kids looked around. They poked their friend next to them. The shifted in the chairs and shuffled their feet on the floor. The adults asked some questions, but the kids were gone. Their attention was elsewhere. They wanted to know when they could get out of that stuffy classroom and go pet the snake outside in the lobby, or make a balloon rocket.
Why is it that astronauts are selected based solely on their technical merit? Is it because we think that the space shuttle can only be flown by the country’s smartest people? (News flash: any of you reading this could probably fly it too with the proper training.) I do not by any means intend to slight or belittle the astronauts here; they are incredibly intelligent people and have done amazing things. But fact is, astronauts are the public face of NASA, and sometimes I think they could be doing a better job.
NASA gets applications from thousands of technically qualified people who want to be astronauts. Instead of choosing one over the other because one has a Ph.D. versus a “mere” Bachelor’s degree, can you imagine what things might be like if a happy and outgoing personality was just as big a factor in selection? If public speaking skills were required? If educational outreach experience was a consideration?
Just imagine what could happen if the most public faces of NASA were never boring!
When I went away to college, I wanted to *be* an astronaut. In a very short span of time, one astronaut came to speak at a local AIAA dinner, a different one came to talk to SWE on campus, and a third talked at an out of town conference I went to… and what disappointed was all three, different astronauts from different classes and different missions, showed the SAME sets of slides, with a few extra personal photos. They were low tech, even for the time, just white text on a blue background. And they gave the same speech, basically. At that point, my freshman year of college and as a freshman aerospace engineer, I lost ALL interest in going to astronaut lectures. What does that say? I was doing it as a CAREER and wasn’t interested…
Wow! I took Baaaarb to the Sunday matinee. The Planets is just about the best concert piece around and the Houston Symphony generated a huge, beautiful sound. Had no clue that the images might have been dated. Believe the associated script was well-directed (Jupiter now has 63 confirmed moons with more on the way, no doubt, very cool) and nicely delivered by the astronaut. Thought the first piece was a clever accompanying piece to The Planets, and the double bass concerto was deathly dull.
Steve — totally agree! The Solaris piece was great, double bass put me to sleep. 🙂
And yeah, dated or not, the images are still amazing. Just that we have some even MORE amazing images from recent missions that have had better cameras! 🙂 You’re right, the astronaut narration was good and informative.
I think the symphony does that planets show a lot. They probably created the slide show years ago and haven’t updated it yet. I bet if somebody volunteered to update it for them they’d be interested!
I think you’re point is well taken. But I experienced the opposite.
Imagine how surprised I was to find out that this runner, Karen Nyberg (who has the technical credentials that you illustrate), who had travelled around the state to complete a 10k Challenge that she would receive no recognition for was in the Astronaut program.
She was just the opposite. She was communicative. Easy to talk to. And then later on, I find out that she was involved in a program with a bunch of kids and putting on a great positive face for NASA as part of the Marathon Kids program.
Cool show.
About astronauts, I think the ones that look at outreach as a job instead of a perk treat it as such and it comes off dry.
Story Musgrave was an entertaining speaker, he loved talking to crowds.
I was there Sunday and I agree it was wonderful. I don’t go to the symphony as often as I should and I’m glad I decided to go at the last minute.
As for astronaut public relations, this is something that can definitely be improved. You would think that with all the training they receive they would get some help with public relations skills. Some of course will always be naturals, but the others can learn to be more engaging. Or at least to write their speeches geared to their various audiences.
Oh — there are some astronauts that are TOTALLY personable, awesome at connecting with kids, etc. But I feel like they’re in the minority, sadly.
I just don’t think you get the astronaut apperance office at all….
Well maybe Arthur can explain it!
Forget the fact that majority of the astros don’t even want to do the apperances they are assigned… It’s just not very realistic to think that they can make a new presentation/speech for EVERY apperance they do – there are just too many. They are always traveling, not enough hours in the day… hey, I think you can relate to that 🙂
It disappoints me that they don’t want to do their appearances. To me, that is part of their job.
I actually don’t have a problem with the presentation/slides/speech being a bit canned as long as they *sound* excited about it. I’ve heard too many astronaut speeches given in monotone. If the person sounds excited, the slides will be more exciting as well.
I relate to them being freakishly busy, yes. But like I said, to me, appearances are part of their job. Some do it well. Some don’t.
Yeah the world can be disappointing sometimes…