LOTS of space questions are already posted. I just did a quick survey (and voted for new ones!) and on the Democratic side, we have 9 of the top 25 questions. However, we “only” have 4 of the top 25 on the republican side of things.

I got a great email from J this morning, he should be the guy that gets some credit for getting this ball rolling, he emailed a bunch of people, initially.

Nothing about space on last night’s debate, but we didn’t have much time to organize that. However, we have about 2 weeks left – and a lot to do.

Please pass the word – vote on current questions (Rep and Dems) and create your own question. And let’s see if we can get a “story” generated with the help of the press.

Thanks. mjl

specifically,

Senator Obama, you recently released a policy statement on space, but made no mention of the commerical spaceflight sector – what role, if any, should the federal government play in encouraging the development of this industry?

and

During the last presidential election, SpaceShipOne flew into space. Today, multiple companies are working on developing cheap access to space, creating a new industry, manned spaceflight. What would your administrations do to encourage and accelerate the development of this new industry?

So those SHOULD be the subtopic line for EVERY question.

FEAR that the chinese will get to the moon first, FEAR that the russians will have the only manned launch system to service the ISS. FEAR FEAR FEAR.

The 180 of hope should be driver for exploration, new frontiers, inspire math and science et cetera.

my 2 cents.

Vladislaw

— Donald

My request/suggestion – to forward to whatever mailing lists you have available, and ask that every person in the space activist/advocacy/think-its-cool community, respond to the space questions and ‘vote’ for what is important to them.

Does anyone remember that during dark-ages of the Internet, People magazine posted a poll for the “most beautiful person in the world”… and Howard Stern fans nominated (and won in a landslide – Hank, the Angry Drunken Dwarf… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hank_the_Angry_Drunken_Dwarf).

I would submit that ‘where this country goes, and what we do in space’, is significantly more important than who is the prettiest person. SO, why not rally the troops, and flood this site with the questions we want answers to? Why not vote on the issues that are important to us, and make a political statement in the process?

I’ve got a mailing list. So do many of the people that read and contribute to this site. Why not see what kind of muscle we have, and make our voice heard. The Mars Society has already sent a notice to its members. What about the Planetary and National Space Societies? What about Space Generation and Yuri’s Night? What about the students and the professors and people that work at Boeing and LockMart? What about the NASA, FAA, and NRO folks? What about the army of Science Fiction fans (worldwide) that are “true-believers” and think that ‘going to space matters’.

I propose we each do 3 things:
∑ Register with Politico (http://dyn.politico.com/debate/) and write 1 question for both the republican and democratic debates. I used the same question, and posted it 3 times, under the headings of “Leadership”, “Economy” and “Education”, to each party.
∑ Then vote on at least 15 space-themed questions that other people proposed. Remember to vote for your own question, too. I followed links from “most recent”, “most popular” and by “topic” to find the questions I wanted to vote on.
∑ Finally, pass this message on, via blogs, newsletters or direct comments. If you have the power to Digg or Slashdot a message, and get wider distribution, do it. If you have media influence and can get a story written about this coordinated effort, do it. Personally commit to 5 people that will follow these 3 steps.

The way I figure, it can’t hurt, and it would be a rare case of the space ‘community’ acting as a true community. You do not need to be a citizen of the US to participate. And the way I figure it, this set of space questions will affect the whole planet, so we might as well get the global space community involved.

One thing that I want to caution against – please – you can write your own question, and vote on whichever questions matter to you. But, please, don’t divide “US” into
∑ Mars vs. Moon,
∑ Manned vs. Robots,
∑ Earth Studies vs. Solar System,
∑ NASA vs. Commercial vs. Military, or
∑ California vs. Texas vs. Florida.

My goal in this is not to set an agenda of “my vision is better than your vision”. That sort of in-fighting is too common in our community. My goal here is to have, at the end of the day, our (potential) political leadership hear that “WE” care about space – and that there is Federal level support for our combined goals. Once the national budget and goals are affirmed, we can then continue with our informed debate on the merits of one vision over the other.

I am not a “single-issue” voter. And I suspect that most of you are not either.

However, wouldn’t it be interesting if, by banding together, we were able to influence whom the next President of the United States were? These debates are perfect leverage points for us. We have the ability, and the reach, and the passion and the vision to make a statement that could change the world. Why not use it, and do some good? Wouldn’t it be worth the effort, if we, through these 3 simple steps, were to influence who was chosen as the leader of the United States of America. Wouldn’t it be worth the effort of these 3 simple steps if that leader were chosen because they inspired hope, and were – in fact – leading this nation (and the world) in the direction of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. And wouldn’t it be even better if they actually understood why STEM mattered in the first place.

We have a unique opportunity. Let us take it!

I will do my part. Will you do yours?

Take care. Mjl

P.s. If you want to email me, please do. Info at liftport dot com, and use the subject “political will”. I would love to get a feel for what sort of grass root activism is available ‘out there’. If there is enough, I will formalize things a bit, and create a mailing list, to keep people informed and updated. I think this particular action is short-lived (the debate is in 2 weeks), but if there is demand for it, and unity, then this list might have value later in the year.
Mjl.