Danielle, aka Hoshichan. Writer and 
Brian sent me this yesterday. I started this post as a reply back to him but realized it made for a good rant. And good post fodder.
Apollo 11 astronaut Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin Jr. told SCI FI Wire that fantastic space science fiction shows and movies are, in part, responsible for the lack of interest in real-life space exploration among young people.
“I blame the fantastic and unbelievable shows about space flight and rocket ships that are on today,” Aldrin said in an interview during an ice cream party held by the National Geographic Channel at the Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., this week. “All the shows where they beam people around and things like that have made young people think that that is what the space program should be doing. It’s not realistic.”
For the most part, I disagree with Mr. Aldrin. I do not think lack of realism is making kids less interested in the space program. I think lack of anything interesting happening, AT ALL, is making kids less interested in the space program. And it’s not just kids.
There’s a lot of talking, organizing, but nothing is really HAPPENING at NASA right now. Hence the commercial interest in the Google Lunar X Prize (in my opinion.) My LPI internship adviser is now the chief scientist for one of the X Prize teams, because he’s not waiting for NASA to get around to getting back to the Moon. There’s a lot of disgruntled scientists (I know, I saw them at the LPSC, in 2000 and 2003) who’ve been living on crumbs of hope, project to project, grant to grant, but how long can that really sustain you?
Since I turned my back on the scientific community, I’m going to write science fiction and go to the Moon whenever the heck I want. :P For whatever non-scientific flippant reason I want. And stay as long as I want.
So for once, for a change, I think Aldrin’s full of crap. Usually I’m pretty much on his side, he’s a great advocate for spaceflight… but people need more than realism. They need hope, dreams… things to inspire them. They need the bar set too high, to give them something to shoot for. They also need to see something happening, and if the space program can’t provide that, they’ll go elsewhere. And they will. And they are.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Brian // Jul 30, 2008 at 1:01 pm
What the heck ever became of George Double-You’s plan to put a man (or woman!) on Mars? I want somebody to get there and let the rest of us know what exactly is going down on that red planet so that I can at long last squelch the uneasiness that’s been with me since my childhood thanks to a four-record set!: http://www.thewaroftheworlds.com/
2 Hoshichan // Jul 30, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Mired down in logistics and planning. Sure there’s a lot of plans and committees and research, but, well, nothing’s really happening that the public can see. There’s nothing to get excited about. Go read some Ray Bradbury, that’s my solution. :D
3 Brad // Aug 8, 2008 at 1:25 am
As soon as someone uses “beaming around” in an article about science fiction it becomes obvious that that person never watches any.
I would have thought Sci Fi would have inspired more people actually.
4 Hoshichan // Aug 8, 2008 at 10:19 am
As soon as someone uses “beaming around” in an article about science fiction it becomes obvious that that person never watches any.
YES, yes eXACTly. I suppose if you’re ONLY considering, uh, STAR TREK, then maybe his reference applies…?
And sci-fi DOES inspire people, including Star Trek! Engineers at NASA loved Babylon 5 so much, JPL people helped the creator with his spin-off series Crusade. (Also, NASA wanted the schematics of some of his ships, for R&D.) So… whatever, Aldrin.