Total Members Voted: 123
Voting closed: 01/26/2017 04:45 pm
...After all, 18,000+ folks (who probably mostly fit in the post-Apollo 17 crowd) applied to be an astronaut last year.
Quote from: RotoSequence on 01/30/2017 05:42 amQuote from: IRobot on 01/30/2017 05:01 amThis poll is not a complete age profile of NSF users, but it is a bit concerning. If most users are indeed over 45 years old, it might be happening what I saw in amateur astronomy some years ago: only old-timers are interested in the subject. It was painful to go to astronomy shows and observations and no young people were showing up any longer. It seems the new generations have no interest in it.Engaging on this forum is daunting. Between the decades of institutional knowledge and complexity of the subject itself, there's a steep learning curve and what looks to be an active interest against changing that. This forum often isn't a particularly inviting place.Interesting. Everything you said is exactly why I like coming here: people with experience can explain why a particular idea is not viable, so you can improve it. Ideas that are more fiction than science get weeded out. Still, I would have expected a lot more young people. Although a lot of regulars seem to not have posted a reaction (yet). Maybe unwillingness to risk that their age might be considered a lack of experience by elder forum members?
Quote from: IRobot on 01/30/2017 05:01 amThis poll is not a complete age profile of NSF users, but it is a bit concerning. If most users are indeed over 45 years old, it might be happening what I saw in amateur astronomy some years ago: only old-timers are interested in the subject. It was painful to go to astronomy shows and observations and no young people were showing up any longer. It seems the new generations have no interest in it.Engaging on this forum is daunting. Between the decades of institutional knowledge and complexity of the subject itself, there's a steep learning curve and what looks to be an active interest against changing that. This forum often isn't a particularly inviting place.
This poll is not a complete age profile of NSF users, but it is a bit concerning. If most users are indeed over 45 years old, it might be happening what I saw in amateur astronomy some years ago: only old-timers are interested in the subject. It was painful to go to astronomy shows and observations and no young people were showing up any longer. It seems the new generations have no interest in it.
Quote from: high road on 01/30/2017 07:22 amQuote from: RotoSequence on 01/30/2017 05:42 amQuote from: IRobot on 01/30/2017 05:01 amThis poll is not a complete age profile of NSF users, but it is a bit concerning. If most users are indeed over 45 years old, it might be happening what I saw in amateur astronomy some years ago: only old-timers are interested in the subject. It was painful to go to astronomy shows and observations and no young people were showing up any longer. It seems the new generations have no interest in it.Engaging on this forum is daunting. Between the decades of institutional knowledge and complexity of the subject itself, there's a steep learning curve and what looks to be an active interest against changing that. This forum often isn't a particularly inviting place.Interesting. Everything you said is exactly why I like coming here: people with experience can explain why a particular idea is not viable, so you can improve it. Ideas that are more fiction than science get weeded out. Still, I would have expected a lot more young people. Although a lot of regulars seem to not have posted a reaction (yet). Maybe unwillingness to risk that their age might be considered a lack of experience by elder forum members?1983 here. I didn't even see the poll when it went up (it was only up for a week), so I am not represented either. Perhaps the poll result is an indicator of who really likes to dive into the forums on a frequent basis.
I do respect and admire the experience represented on this forum, but if this result really is an indicator of the average age of NSF users, then look no further than Jim's response to Flying Beaver earlier on this thread as an example of why. If people as respected as Jim can make such rude responses to new space enthusiasts and hardly even get called on it, especially when Flying Beaver was arguably right about a landed SpaceX rocket stage being a benchmark date that future generations will look back to, then this website/forum will go the way of so many others, and that would be a shame.