“I can’t speak to the effectiveness of trying to force science pills down Congress’ throat, and I’m certainly in no place to judge whether or not certain individuals have the tact required to do so.”

While it worked earlier, “space enthusiasts”lobbying for their particular space “science” will become nearly completely ineffective soon, in my opinion. The Congress has a lot of problems to deal with, and will be looking closely at costs/benefits.

All kidding aside, I can’t speak to the effectiveness of trying to force science pills down Congress’ throat, and I’m certainly in no place to judge whether or not certain individuals have the tact required to do so. However I do agree that, at least in the case of 98% of the population, the best target audience for space advocacy is the public. Without support from the American citizen, the Space Program doesn’t exist. No matter how much lobbying is done in Washington. Even in Carl Sagan’s case –he himself admits that the robotic missions of the 70’s and 80’s would probably not have happened if Apollo hadn’t done such a flawless job of instilling pride and enthusiasm in the hearts of America as a whole.

Sadly, enthusiasm for space among he general population has grown lacklustre. That’s where ‘grass roots’ activism comes in. And I don’t mean evangelizing, I mean tact. I am a huge believer in the power of marketing when it’s done right.

Carl had star power (no pun intended), but we don’t have a Sagan today who’s willing to translate that star power into effective political action.

Neil Tyson is entertaining, but he isn’t an effective political force. For example, here is his March 2012 appearance before the Senate science committee. Only three members showed up, and one of them quickly bailed. Tyson spent a half-hour talking to a largely empty dais.

Carl wouldn’t have let that happen. He understood politics. In fact, he once was arrested protesting nuclear bomb testing. He knew that would get media attention. Would Neil put himself on the line? I doubt it.

Bill Nye was politically active in the last election, but is that going to translate into anything?

In Sagan’s time, we had three commercial television networks and PBS. That was it. One reason Cosmos rocked the nation was that so many people were aware of it. If Carl tried to premiere Cosmos today, it would be on an obscure cable channel like Discovery. Very very few people would watch it.

I don’t think NSS or TPS have outlived their usefulness, but I do think they need to reassess how to achieve their goals. Lobbying for more government funding isn’t going to work any more. Most members of Congress are scientifically illiterate, and care about nothing other than their own re-election.

Space enthusiasts, in my opinion, need to turn to the private sector, to wealthy benefactors, to visionaries like Elon Musk who are willing to put their billions on the line for space exploration (and exploitation). It’s going to take more efforts like Golden Spike that circumvent Congress.

I wish Carl were still with us, because I suspect he’d be all over NewSpace.

Riding that tailwind TPS began gaining a good amount of respect in the 80’s. In 1981 Congress cut NASA’s funding for SETI. TPS helped convince Congress to restore its funding. They developed the first privately-funded hardware sent to another planet. They developed project LIFE, which was a two-phase study of the theory of transpermia, and proved that there are organisms that can survive the vacuum of space. TPS funding jump-started the investigation into the Pioneer Anomaly, which convinced NASA to follow up with its funds. Their big current project is a ‘Light Sail’, which was originally created and carried out in conjunction with Cosmos Studio (yes, Sagan’s Cosmos) but launched onboard an ill-fated Volna; they have now resurrected the project under NASA’s ‘NanoSail-D’ project (now re-named ‘Light Sail’) and two finished Light Sails are currently in queue to be piggybacked.

And billions and billions of smaller projects from every corner of space science and advocacy.

With its high-profile origins, it attracted space advocacy giants such as Neil DeGrasse Tyson (board of directors), and Bill Nye (CEO). Regardless of where you stand on which issues and projects, The Planetary Society is a powerful vehicle through which to reach the public.

Re; Workers who actually care versus those just working for a paycheck: obviously there are lots of the latter, but to imply that their existence renders the true space enthusiasts few and far between is a bit extreme. While there may not necessarily be droves of people who care enough to actively advocate, I’m confident that there are a reasonable amount of people who do care enough to advocate. I know because I encounter them every time I go over there. I’ve met some amazing people over there who truly have a passion for space, and I’m pretty certain I know of at least a few off-hand who will probably be willing to give TPS a shot.

The demographic here is also wide, and certainly not limited to government employees. Obviously there are the contractors, and enthusiasts outside of the industry, or in related industries. You also have the presence of four very space-savvy colleges in the proximity. Brevard Community College, while small, does in fact have a solid space core. Then there’s FIT, UCF, and Embry-Riddle. UCF often partners with NASA on research, not to mention that NASA’s Florida Space Institute is now a part of UCF. All of them full of bright-eyed college students beaming with a passion for space.