I remember bringing this up before STS-1. The Shuttle has always had autoland, originally required because of the uncertain weather in Florida, but many people at JSC did not believe it even existed, and what pilot would give up the chance to land it? That’s why the X-37 was important; it and the X-34, DC-X, and X-33 were unmanned and would land autonomously.

From an engineering point of view, it would be better to have the pilot assessing the overall situation than focused on the stick and rudder.

And as much as they learn science and math in school, they need to learn about the history and the significance and the potential for the future. They have to be able to visualize how they might contribute or be a part of it one day. The audience that needs to be getting most of the attention are 12-15 years away from getting out of college and starting careers, and maybe a lot longer.

Scientists and engineers and NASA seem to have this fixation on having the kids try to work LIKE engineers and scientists, building moon buggies or robots. That will get some kids interested, but based on the present STEM situation in the US, it not having much of an effect. How many of your friends did these sorts of hands on projects in school? How many built and launched model rockets. I’d guess you were in a pretty small minority.

There are relatively very few schools that teach any astronomy or space science. Its usually an elective taught to very few. Even if they teach these subjects, there are far fewer that teach anything about the history of either.

If they have no concept of how they might participate. If they have no concept of the history, then the knowledge and science that has been learned has no context. And, they really have no concept of why they would want to be a rocket scientist or engineer or why they should support the space program.

I’ve become convinced, most of the people who are supporting space, along with NASA; their aim is entirely wrong. They are aimed at the wrong population, using the wrong methods. Mostly, 95% of the effort is aimed solely at the people who already have an interest. About 5% is aimed at what becomes minor publicity aimed at the general populace. It has very little effect.

This is what my dissertation is focusing on.

The 6 year old Constellation Mission did not capture too many people’s imagination.

Most people think of the moon landings as if they were not too long ago. The pictures returned on Apollo have a timeless quality. MANY people believe that the moon is where the Shuttle goes every week.

The first line made no more sense than the last one did, because (as usual) you never put quotes around what others are saying, as opposed to you. The only way to tell if it’s someone else’s words is that they tend to be more grammatical. The entire comment (like most of yours) was babble. I didn’t want to repeat the whole thing.

[typical Fox News derangement ignored, as though CNN or MSNBC are any better]

Rand has a transterrestrial view on things. Just read his musings.
Only talk about Space Politics with Rand. That’s what this website is for.