Space Poll and 'Civilian Space Travel'

07/20/03 00:00:00    

By Michael Mealling

spacetoday.net has an article on this Zogby poll about public attitudes toward NASA and the shuttle fleet. While most of the questions never asked the fundamental questions of why we're up there in the first place, the one that initially depressed me was the one on Civilian Space Travel:

65% agreed with this statement: “Putting civilians into space is a bad idea because of the costs involved in the additional training and the dangers involved. Space travel should only involve highly trained and highly skilled professionals.”

33% agreed with this statement: “Putting civilians like teachers, politicians, and paying tourists into space is a good idea because it generates public interest, helps to create awareness of the space program in our children, and should be open to all Americans.”

3% said Neither or that they weren't sure

My hope is that they were making the distinction in their own minds about the fact that NASA shouldn't be carrying tourists. But part of me doubts it. The other depressing one was questions 15 which asked what the top priority of the space program should be. The leader with 49% was “Basic research on our solar system and the universe”.

We've got a long way to go before the average Amercian's concept of space gets anywhere close to where I think the majority of us want it to be. NASA isn't going to be the one to do it though. Those results couldn't have been more perfect for NASA. Maybe we need to write our own poll.