The poll asks no questions about “public support for space.” Whatever that means. Space itself is not a government activity but a physical region. How do you support or oppose that?

Pollsters apparently asked two questions, about “space exploration” and “the space exploration program” but merged the results because the answers were (not surprisingly) very similar. It would have been more interesting if they asked separate questions about NASA, DoD, and FAA-AST. It’s likely, although not certain, that most people were thinking only about NASA when they answered the question.

Nor is it true that “space exploration did very poorly.” People were not asked about space exploration per se; they were asked about government *funding* for space exploration. There’s no data to show whether respondents support or oppose space exploration. There’s only data to show that they think the government is spending too much money on space exploration.

We know that other polls show widespread support for space exploration, especially if people are offered the chance to explore space themselves. So, I think a more accurate conclusion would be that the American public continues to support space exploration but believes the way the government does it costs too much.

In my opinion, that is very good news for space exploration.

And, so? I doubt the average American could tell you, off the top of their head, what percentage of the Federal budget goes to *any* Federal agency.

If you ask the average man on the street what percentage of the Federal budget goes to DoD, he will probably guess around 50%. I hear news reports all the time that claim the Federal budget is “dominated by” and deficits “driven by” military spending. In reality, military spending accounts for just 17% of the FY07 budget. (The media often inflates the figure by comparing it to “discretionary spending” rather than total spending.)

So, even if NASA is harmed by the perception that it gets more money than it does, it’s probably harmed no more than DoD (and, perhaps, a lot of other agencies).

I’m scared for NASA Academy, mentioned in a recent Space Review article, because it is such a brilliant effing program and exactly what NASA does need to be doing more of, as it cultivates young researchers and shows them a chunk of the NASA network. We got to see GSFC, HQ, WFC, Langley, KFC, and JSC in 2002, and the Academy was at Senate (GSFC) and House (Ames) hearings as well. Rep. Lampson left the podium to chat with the kids in the back of the room -during- the proceedings. Admin. O’Keefe held them up to the committees as an example of where NASA does have some programs to do exactly what the Congress-critters were talking about. (okay, I’m a bit proud of that bit of handiwork) Some of them are NASA’s leaders 15-20 years down the road.

While it may or may not really be NASA’s job to educate the general public about space, it is NASA’s job to cultivate some of the brightest minds in the country as future employed researchers and leaders. I’m not sure NASA realizes that, though.

And these were some really brilliant youngsters (early to late 20s, generally) working on some amazing cutting edge projects. I know because my Program Support project was a compilation and distillation of all the DDF projects for the GSFC Tech Xfer office. Great stuff like Lidar back before it was popular. They got to see and work on some of the coolest equipment.

Sigh.