Comments on: Mixed messages

By: Space Politics » Doc’s bipartisan prescription

Space Politics » Doc’s bipartisan prescription — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 11:11:22 +0000

[...] than two-thirds and slightly more than three-fourths of the general population. But as noted here, there are mixed messages about just how strongly the public supports NASA, with some polls suggesting that space should be first on the chopping block, That’s a sign [...]

By: Roger Clandon

Roger Clandon — Thu, 10 May 2007 21:22:21 +0000

Interesting follow up on UP Aerospace’s launch from Spaceport America on April 28: Seems that at the last minute, the new Spaceport Director, Rick Homans (formally the NM Secretary of Economic Development)got a little nervous about the launch and decided to move the aim point 5 miles to the west (because safety is number one). Jerry Larson, President of UP Aerospace, was against the move but was told to either move it or don’t launch. As a result, the payload is now in the mountains west of the range and has yet to be recovered (almost two weeks later). The place where they think it came down is less than two miles from flat open land – Thanks a lot Rick. Next time just shut up and color and let technical people make the technical decisions, you moron! Yet another reason why we have to get spaceflight out of the hands of beaurocrats.

By: Thomas Lee Elifritz

Thomas Lee Elifritz — Tue, 08 May 2007 20:43:25 +0000

There is an issue that has just cropped up that could help human spaceflight immensely : global warming. But we know the help won’t be VSE and ESAS.

http://cosmic.lifeform.org/?p=292

By: kert

kert — Mon, 07 May 2007 14:50:17 +0000

guarantee mankind survival
oops, if that would be amended to “survival of American values and ways of life” the answers would get even funnier, and further apart from space.

By: Robert G. Oler

Robert G. Oler — Mon, 07 May 2007 14:39:21 +0000

Other then the hometown politicans…NASA human spaceflight funding could be zeroed out and not a single politican would pay a political price for it.

Real Americans dont care about human spaceflight…Nowak provides entertainment.

Robert

By: kert

kert — Mon, 07 May 2007 14:06:10 +0000

the honest benchmark of support for space development would be to ask: what are the tree most important things to do to guarantee mankind survival for next coming century or two, i.e. your grand-grandchildren ? If that question would be posed without predefined answers and one out of ten thousand respondents would respond with “becoming multiplanet species” i’d be impressed. The actual sampling of answers by average Joe’s would be a fun read too..

Of course, this is not directly relevant to NASA funding, as NASA’s current contribution for actually becoming multiplanet species is almost, but not quite zero.

By: MarkWhittington

MarkWhittington — Mon, 07 May 2007 14:02:47 +0000

Earl – Under that experiment I suspect NASA would get more, mainly because a lot of people think NASA gets a *lot* more than 70 cents,

By: Al Fansome

Al Fansome — Mon, 07 May 2007 13:42:22 +0000

FOUST: But there’s that bigger contradiction: why do nearly half of respondents in one poll select the “space program” as the one that should be among the first to see its budget cut, while in another a third state that NASA’s budget should be increased?

I agree with Mr. Blake. This seemingly conflicting results are created by the mile wide, but inch deep support.

The majority of Americans repeteadly say they support NASA funding, but if you take the same people and force them to make choices between NASA and other federal funding priorities, and in balancing the federal budget, (which is the choice that our elected leaders have to make) then NASA loses out.

The question that puzzles me is why people keep spending money on polls that rarely tell you anything new.

One interesting poll might be to poll test out various strategies that buy you different benefits. If one approach is technologically more difficult, but gives you much more national security and economic benefits, for example by helping to create an industry that allows many more private citizens to visit space, what would people say?

- Al

By: Earl Blake

Earl Blake — Mon, 07 May 2007 12:39:18 +0000

Support for NASA is usualy 10 miles wide but only an inch deep. When push comes to shove NASA usualy gets the short end of the stick.
I’d like to see a survay where subjects are given $100 and a list of federal bugetary items to allowcate that money to. I wonder if NASA would get the 70 cents it gets now?

By: Jeff Foust

Jeff Foust — Mon, 07 May 2007 11:05:40 +0000

Allen: true enough, although it’s not clear whether any such pre-conditioning was accidental or deliberate. There’s no indication in the press release that the poll was performed for a specific organization, which would serve as a potential tipoff regarding the slant of the results.

Mark: Remember that the Harris Interactive poll results included splits by political party (including independents): among Republicans the space program was the most common response when asked what program they would cut, in a statistical tie with welfare—a program that’s hardly been popular with the GOP over the years.