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When I was in high school I was invited to a youth science symposium. After a fancy dinner after a day-long event I asked the speaker, a woman from NASA, if a n
by eeek 13y ago
When I was in high school I was invited to a youth science symposium. After a fancy dinner after a day-long event I asked the speaker, a woman from NASA, if a non-returning mission to Mars was on NASA's list of possibilities ( as the difficulty of the return trip is the primary prohibitive part of a manned mission to Mars ). She took this opportunity to try to humiliate me for even thinking such a crazy plan was worth considering, stating that "we would never send anyone to Mars if we could not return them home" as if it was some kind of militaristic "leave no man behind" moral code. I was very disappointed that she didn't even take the time to consider it and argue against it from a reasoned position. I am happy to see that others are not so closed minded these days and that space and planetary exploration will most likely continue with more open-minded people finding ways to reach out push on the edge of our envelope.
- anigbrowl 13y agoImagine if she'd said yes. About a week later the tabloids would be screaming 'NASA to launch astronauts on death mission.' She wasn't trying to humiliate you, she was engaged in her job of doing public outreach.
- Myrmornis 13y agoSo as a scientist, speaking to young scientists, perhaps she should have said something like "First please note that while the following answer may be the truth, the nature of my job sometimes compels me to give non-truthful answers." Perhaps such a disclaimer should be given by any "scientist" whose PR operations sometimes preclude accuracy?
- kaybe 13y agoIt is more the distinction between the official line and their personal opinion. In more private contexts (and with some beer) you can have some interesting conversations. (Did you know that the people on the ISS have not tried to invent any cool 0g games? "but juggling is really easy" ahh, the possibilities..)
- infectoid 13y agoI would think that she could have answered simply, "while your ideas are completely valid, we at NASA find it to be a more compelling challenge to return people to Earth from Mars as it would provide a much better opportunity to innovate and increase our knowledge base on return mission while opening up new industries beyond simply landing Humans on Mars, but ones that span the entire Solar system".