4 ms·

Americans were never excited about space exploration.

14 points by mchanson 14y ago

anigbrowl 14y ago
What a superb paper! thanks for posting this, I learned a good deal from it. I was astonished by figure 15, showing that although NASA,s budget has historically been about 1% of the total federal budget, the general public simply has no idea, with 15%+ of the public (in the 1990s) thinking that NASA consumes 50% or more of total federal spending. WTF.
prosa 14y ago
This is an interesting study, but I found the HN title to be misleading. Here are the bullets from the concluding paragraph: * The American public has long held generally positive attitudes toward the space program, but is not very familiar with its details. * Over the history of the space age, an average of more than 60 percent of those polled rated the job done by NASA as either ‘‘excellent’’ or ‘‘good.’’ * Most Americans have shown support for space exploration and view it as important over the years, but also believe that federal money could be better spent on other programs. * Most are also in favor of NASA as an organization, but are relatively unfamiliar with the majority of its activities and objectives. * These polls also suggest historically close relationships between public perceptions of NASA and spaceflight depictions in popular culture, especially film. These images from popular culture, coupledwith real-world accomplishments in spaceflight, work together to create powerful visions affecting the public consciousness.
WiseWeasel 14y ago
It's a shame the data only seems to be available up to 1997 for the study. For those curious how recent private space initiatives have impacted these numbers, here are a couple more recent data points I could find: http://www.gallup.com/poll/121736/majority-americans-say-space-program-costs-justified.aspx http://www.gallup.com/poll/121736/majority-americans-say-spa... http://www.people-press.org/2011/07/05/majority-sees-u-s-leadership-in-space-as-essential/ http://www.people-press.org/2011/07/05/majority-sees-u-s-lea... http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/lifestyle/general_lifestyle/july_2011/50_say_space_shuttle_program_worth_what_it_cost_taxpayers http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/lifestyle/gen...

14 points by mchanson 14y ago

What a superb paper! thanks for posting this, I learned a good deal from it. I was astonished by figure 15, showing that although NASA,s budget has historically been about 1% of the total federal budget, the general public simply has no idea, with 15%+ of the public (in the 1990s) thinking that NASA consumes 50% or more of total federal spending. WTF.

prosa 14y ago

This is an interesting study, but I found the HN title to be misleading. Here are the bullets from the concluding paragraph: * The American public has long held generally positive attitudes toward the space program, but is not very familiar with its details. * Over the history of the space age, an average of more than 60 percent of those polled rated the job done by NASA as either ‘‘excellent’’ or ‘‘good.’’ * Most Americans have shown support for space exploration and view it as important over the years, but also believe that federal money could be better spent on other programs. * Most are also in favor of NASA as an organization, but are relatively unfamiliar with the majority of its activities and objectives. * These polls also suggest historically close relationships between public perceptions of NASA and spaceflight depictions in popular culture, especially film. These images from popular culture, coupledwith real-world accomplishments in spaceflight, work together to create powerful visions affecting the public consciousness.

WiseWeasel 14y ago

It's a shame the data only seems to be available up to 1997 for the study. For those curious how recent private space initiatives have impacted these numbers, here are a couple more recent data points I could find: http://www.gallup.com/poll/121736/majority-americans-say-space-program-costs-justified.aspx http://www.gallup.com/poll/121736/majority-americans-say-spa... http://www.people-press.org/2011/07/05/majority-sees-u-s-leadership-in-space-as-essential/ http://www.people-press.org/2011/07/05/majority-sees-u-s-lea... http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/lifestyle/general_lifestyle/july_2011/50_say_space_shuttle_program_worth_what_it_cost_taxpayers http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/lifestyle/gen...