Last week I listened to streams of meetings of the Human Space Flight Review Committee.  While listening, I was reminded of how many people I know see the space program.  When I say I’m going back to school either to get an aerospace or mechanical engineering degree, I usually get greeted with  overwhelming enthusiasm.  People who’ve known me a very long time, especially, know that the dream of working in this arena goes back to my earliest grade school days, and that I’m certainly bright enough to do it.  All I need is to figure out the “how.” But there’s that other camp, who react to my news with wrinkled noses and confused faces.  They start talking, and it becomes clear that they view the space program is a big laser light show, full of dazzling displays of expensive frivolity.  In times where the economy is sinking, it’s a wasteful indulgence in their eyes.  The practicality is lost on them, and they just kind of boggle at me for a bit.   Usually they recover, after a little bit of listening to me rave about how happy it would make me, and leave me with something along the lines of, “well, you are pretty weird.  I guess it does sound like a good fit.”

Over the past week I heard a lot of talk about how NASA is failing to capture the imaginations of adults and youth alike.  Most of the people at these conferences had a vested interest in NASA, so they were looking to rekindle the pioneering spirit of Americans.  My daily interactions confirm the lacklustre image that human spaceflight has taken on lately.  More and more often I’m hearing people rant about how we need to get rid of that “waste of a space program.”  This, from Alabama natives — who have cell phones in their pockets, who use the Internet daily, and probably ate a microwaved meal or two in the last 24 hours!  It’s becoming a more mainstream, accepted viewpoint that NASA is utter frivolity.

Now, I do understand there are valid concerns with how money is being spent, and what goals the government and private industry should play.  When we’re talking about health care, no one (well, almost no one) starts shouting about how we don’t need doctors anyway, do they?   When we argue about education, even those people who would abolish the Department of Education still believe in the value of education.  They just don’t want it dictated by the government.  But with human spaceflight, people will skip arguing those issues and start arguing that humans have no business leaving our atmosphere, and everything we need to do can be done with robots, end of story.  The status quo is just fine, thankyouverymuch, why do we have to push forward any further?  Unfortunately, when people start talking in such terms, I tend to shut them down before they can get very far.  While I’m glad that my passion is evident, I really would like to understand why people feel that way.

It exasperates me that 40 years ago NASA’s work was our shining achievement, but now they’ve fallen largely out of favor.  It’s not a matter of squandering money, either.  Unlike most government spending, NASA’s work has paid for that investment hundreds of times over in returns to the quality of life of the people.  Working on a shoestring budget, NASA has continued to do wonderful work that outstrips their own projections by years and years.  Look at the shuttle!  We’ve made do with equipment that is far past it’s prime, and people are suggesting that we still try and extend the life of the shuttle a few more years.  That kind of thrift is extraordinary, but we take it for granted now.  NASA’s exceptional track record is the reason, yet it’s vilified consistently and incorrectly as a boring, wasteful program that does nothing for anyone but a few academics in ivory towers.

Is it a breakdown of the PR machine? Are people frightened?  Or just plain unimaginative? 35 years of not leaving Earth’s orbit?  Bored now?  Unable to see past the next decade?   I imagine all of those factors are in play, as well as a disenchantment in general brought on by economic downturns.  Whatever it is, my children don’t need to be coaxed into understanding how important space exploration is.  They see it naturally, without any (intentional) proselytizing on my part at all.  We look into the beautiful black openness of the skies and see possibilities and hope.  Listening to that kind of negativism and lack of vision always just strengthens my resolve to want to be a part of those who get us out there into the stars.