18- to 25-Year-Olds are Apathetic Toward NASA, According to Surveys

Recently surveys on public attitudes toward space exploration taken by the Dittmar Associates firm had some disquieting news for NASA. It seems that there is a high level of apathy toward NASA programs on the part of 18 to 25 year olds. There seems to be a number of reasons for this phenomenon.

This demographic is not really accustomed to thinking very far ahead. People who are 18 to 25 years old have grown up with NASA programs consisting of space shuttle flights going in circles in low Earth orbit and an International Space Station that seems to be endlessly under construction for purposes that remain unclear to many people.

NASA Administrator Michael Griffin believes that planned expeditions to the Moon and Mars hold much promise as more engaging endeavors. Unfortunately these voyages of discovery are years or even decades in the future. The typical college student is more interested in getting an education, finding a first job, and hooking up with the opposite sex than with undertakings that are scheduled to take place when they will be in their thirties or older. Also, issues like terrorism and the environment seem more relevant than space adventures that are far in the future.

NASA Public Affairs are pondering ideas for engaging young people more in what the space agency does. These ideas include more use of the internet to convey messages and images; the recent partnership between NASA with Google would seem to be a good step in that direction. Other ideas include celebrity endorsements, partnerships with youth-oriented media (i.e. MTV), and events like the Olympics and NASCAR.

Space analyst Jeff Foust, however, suggested in a recent Space Review article that the problem may not be so much the medium as the message. The same Dittmar survey that suggested youth disinterest in NASA also showed a much stronger interest in space tourism and other commercial space activities. Foust suggests that the reason is that space tourism ventures hold out the promise of people to be participants rather than spectators in space travel.