Comments on: New space transportation policy “hopefully” out by fall http://www.spacepolitics.com/2012/03/22/new-space-transportation-policy-hopefully-out-by-fall/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=new-space-transportation-policy-hopefully-out-by-fall Because sometimes the most important orbit is the Beltway... Wed, 17 Sep 2014 13:35:41 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.0.38 By: vulture4 http://www.spacepolitics.com/2012/03/22/new-space-transportation-policy-hopefully-out-by-fall/#comment-365356 Thu, 22 Mar 2012 20:00:04 +0000 http://www.spacepolitics.com/?p=5503#comment-365356 I remember how after Sputnik Eisenhower and Kennedy decided to boost stem education by …. putting resources into STEM education itself; teachers, equipment for schools, etc. What a concept!

]]> By: Doug Lassiter http://www.spacepolitics.com/2012/03/22/new-space-transportation-policy-hopefully-out-by-fall/#comment-365315 Thu, 22 Mar 2012 13:37:56 +0000 http://www.spacepolitics.com/?p=5503#comment-365315 Very interesting that Marquez forsees the new national space transportation study as touching firmly on STEM education, wherein that directive language is “tied to the need of having an educated workforce to support space transportation operations”. That is, instead of pretending that such space transportation efforts offer value for the general technological and scientific benefit of the nation, they’re going to call it like it is. Those efforts are important for … educating more people to make those efforts. The value to the nation defined here is self preservation. That’s like planetary science as being important for training more planetary scientists or communications engineering as being important to train more communications engineers.

I had not appreciated it, but the overriding National Space Policy is similarly careful about articulating the value of space investments for STEM education. STEM education is mentioned once there, in the section on “Develop and Retain Space Professionals”. Space and STEM is seen by this administration as about training, and not educational inspiration.

That’s not to say that investment in space isn’t good for general STEM education, but that it’s just not necessarily a cost-effective way to do it, and should not be taken as a hand-waving general rationale for spending that money.

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