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A recent research study by Dittmar and Associates found 18-25 year olds are indifferent to space exploration, a finding that is forcing NASA to make a concerted public relations effort against this audience.

This is a generation for whom space travel has been defined by the Shuttle, both the positive and the negative.

The issue NASA has to solve is to communicate the value of space exploration.

It's easy to get lost celebrating the space shuttle as a marvel of engineering and lose perspective on the relevance of its accomplishments.

"The space shuttle, the most complex machine ever built, is the only spacecraft with its robust capacity. The Shuttle's capacity enables humans today to build the world's largest orbiting laboratory, paving the way back to the moon, onto Mars and further into the universe."

NASA- website

Great, but why are we doing this?

It would be a mistake for NASA to go overboard and just highlight the amazing feats behind the Space Shuttle.

Why should an 18 year-old high school kid care?

This is a generation grounded in pragmatism and realism, not dreams. It's a big difference from the attitude of the late 60s generation, when the space race was constantly on the front pages of newspapers.

What has the space shuttle achieved that matters to their life and what can we expect the new program, Orion to achieve?

What is NASA doing that's cool?

NASA has the media tools at its disposal; podcasts, webcasts, a website, film footage, stunning images, etc.

However, if you take a look on YouTube there's very little material from NASA with any kind of view count.

This is the exception (300k+ views) and everyone knows zero gravity is cool.



NASA employees don't appear to have MySpace pages and overall there seems to be very little opportunity for anyone who's 18-25 to interact with the organization, using the tools they are familiar with.

So here are some tips, in no particular order...

- Get some more interesting videos up on YouTube
- Encourage NASA employees to have MySpace pages
- Create debate and dialog- go to university campuses, create town hall meetings- do them online and offline
- Give solid examples of the benefits that space exploration has brought the real world- in the past 20 years- what inventions- innovations?
- Get companies that have benefited from NASA to speak on your behalf
- Play in the worlds of fashion (the organization has one of the best identities ever created), music, film- find spokespeople that the generation respects to translate your message (sorry, not Patrick Stewart and David Duchovny- as your workships recommended)
- Create a road show that brings NASA to their world- concerts, sports events
- Open source your content for remixing- film, audio, etc?

Doing these things will help generate both awareness and relevance (NASA needs both), will get NASA back on the radar screen for this generation and at least start a conversation.