| Posted on Jun 25, 2008 11:56:31 AM | Wayne Hale | 5 Comments | |
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Travel kept me from a new post on the blog yesterday and meetings and such have kept me away from it this morning too!
There is so much to say and listen to. Thank you for all your comments -- keep them coming!
Right now I am headed out to the Smithsonian Folk Life Festival on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. NASA is one of the honored exhibitors there for the next two weeks. This afternoon and tomorrow afternoon I have a speaking role. Come by and see me at the NASA pavilion!
Directly interacting with the public is always an amazing thing. I feel so energized and learn so much. Tomorrow I hope to tell you more.
TTFN
Tags : public outreach
Anyone know if Gene Kranz is going to be there?
I'd ride down to DC and brave the rainstorms if he was going to be there over the weekend.
Wonder what voter concensus feels like from inside NASA compared to what the media tells us. All we have is 1 or 2 media conglomerates & thousands of blogs that copy what the media says. The media always covers protests over science cuts but never any protests over astronaut cuts. They cover protests over shuttle retirement but never protests over risking more lives on it. The media says all the problems with it, booster & tile damage, are fixed so let's keep flying it, but what about the other problems?
Wayne read the memo about proper attire and was wearing a polo shirt while the HQ folks did not read/adhere to the memo and had ties on.
I'll second the comment about the need for educating the public. I'm astonished by some of the blog postings I read following a news story about a mission like Phoenix. Not only can't some folks differentiate between real science and (bad television and movie) science fiction, but there seem to be quite a few folks who believe that NASA is holding back or hiding evidence of extra-terrestrial life.
Wayne: Good for you! Interacting with the public is so important, and so is educating them. The task is daunting, however. The vast majority of the inhabitants of this planet (including Americans) can't tell a gamma ray from a cosmic ray, have never heard of Titan, have no clue what causes the phases of the moon, don't believe the big bang even when you explain it to them, and don't appreciate how close STS-93 was to an ascent abort.
Is it any wonder we have trouble getting public support for our endeavors?