Author Topic: NASA.gov Adds Commercial Space Link To It's Menu (Read 2733 times)

mr. mark · « **on:** 05/27/2011 06:57 pm »

In a sign of changing times, NASA.gov has added a commercial space icon ink to it's menu.

ugordan · « **Reply #1 on:** 05/27/2011 07:00 pm »

Wow, stop the presses...

mr. mark · « **Reply #2 on:** 05/27/2011 07:13 pm »

You must not understand the power of perception. Hollywood and the music industry is completly based on it as well as all mass marketing. It matters. It's how opinion long term is shaped and utilized.

ugordan · « **Reply #3 on:** 05/27/2011 07:17 pm »

I understand what perception can do. I don't understand why this deserves its own thread. We aren't the general public here to care much for perception.

Jason1701 · « **Reply #4 on:** 05/27/2011 07:29 pm »

They actually added a "commercial space" icon right after President Obama announced his FY11 proposal in February 2010. It got removed pretty quickly. Good to see it back.

Cherokee43v6 · « **Reply #5 on:** 05/27/2011 07:32 pm »

Quote

We aren't the general public here to care much for perception.

As an engineer you may not care about perception, but as a government employee, the perception of what you do by the taxpayer governs whether or not your pet project gets funded or file thirteened.

I will add that from a public perception standpoint NASA tends to be viewed as 'a useless prestige moneyhole'. As exemplified by the fairly common quote 'Oh, I love space travel, but shouldn't we spend that money to end hunger/poverty/war/crime/drugs/pollution/foreign oil dependence/yadayadayada.'

You may not care a whit about perception, but failure to exercise the practice of shaping it will destroy your dreams.

ugordan · « **Reply #6 on:** 05/27/2011 07:43 pm »

Quote from: Cherokee43v6 on 05/27/2011 07:32 pm

Quote
We aren't the general public here to care much for perception.

As an engineer you may not care about perception, but as a government employee, the perception of what you do by the taxpayer governs whether or not your pet project gets funded or file thirteened.

You may not care a whit about perception, but failure to exercise the practice of shaping it will destroy your dreams.

Really no need for lectures. By "we" I mean everyone who frequents this forum, i.e. both actual people in industry as well as informed space enthusiasts, the latter making up the vast majority of forum members. Not "general public". General public (like those who don't know the difference between a "shuttle" and a "rocket") doesn't exactly frequent this forum.

As I said, commercial space or other things related to perception do not need to be sold to us. "We" are supposed to be above the PR fluff of whether there's a fancy icon on some website or not.

Cherokee43v6 · « **Reply #7 on:** 05/27/2011 07:54 pm »

Quote from: ugordan on 05/27/2011 07:43 pm

Quote from: Cherokee43v6 on 05/27/2011 07:32 pm
Quote
We aren't the general public here to care much for perception.

As an engineer you may not care about perception, but as a government employee, the perception of what you do by the taxpayer governs whether or not your pet project gets funded or file thirteened.

You may not care a whit about perception, but failure to exercise the practice of shaping it will destroy your dreams.

Really no need for lectures. By "we" I mean everyone who frequents this forum, i.e. both actual people in industry as well as informed space enthusiasts, the latter making up the vast majority of forum members. Not "general public". General public (like those who don't know the difference between a "shuttle" and a "rocket") doesn't exactly frequent this forum.

As I said, commercial space or other things related to perception do not need to be sold to us. "We" are supposed to be above the PR fluff of whether there's a fancy icon on some website or not.

I don't disagree with the 'preaching to the choir' angle, however the choir helps to shape the message and when the choir ignores the preacher, then so does the congregation.

mr. mark · « **Reply #8 on:** 05/27/2011 08:08 pm »

"Commercial space transportation is a vital component to the future of human space exploration".

This is the first line of NASA's new commercial space page. Thousands of children from thousands of schools around the world view NASA's website on a regular basis. Many of those children in 10 years time will become US voters and a select few of them may become US elected officials. So getting the message across now can only help the cause later. Better to shape minds now so that we don't have to be looking under rocks for funding later.

Cog_in_the_machine · « **Reply #9 on:** 05/27/2011 09:39 pm »

Quote from: mr. mark on 05/27/2011 08:08 pm

Better to shape minds now so that we don't have to be looking under rocks for funding later.

"Shaping minds" has been tried for decades and we're still looking under rocks for funding. I'll just leave it at that.

Chris Bergin · « **Reply #10 on:** 05/28/2011 12:54 am »

Aww, we didn't get a thread when we added a commercial news section link to our front page!

Nothing to merge this with, leaving it as is.

neutrino78x · « **Reply #11 on:** 05/30/2011 04:18 pm »

Quote from: mr. mark

Better to shape minds now so that we don't have to be looking under rocks for funding later.

As a fan of commercial space, I totally agree that minds should be shaped in favor of it. However, the beauty of commercial space is that the funding is independent of the government. Unlike NASA, Bob Bigelow doesn't have to go to Congress to put up a space hotel. He just uses his personal fortune to do it.

All hail rich people who are into space!

--Brian