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Mission: Letting People Know That NASA Is Cool
10.03.09
By: Jim Hodges
The walls on three sides of the room on the second floor of Building 1212 were canvasses, even if all of the ideas on them weren't masterpieces.
Perhaps some of them were.
"Employees/astronauts participate in reality TV shows," wrote Jesse Midgett, who oversees the process by which inventions by NASA personnel are recognized.
Later he added, "Dragon's Den," the popular British show about entrepreneurship, and "Shark Tank," an American imitation.
And "Are You Smarter Than a Rocket Scientist?"
Rory Collins (foreground) leads the "Make NASA Cool" initiative. Chris Giersch, co-host of NASA Edge, offers media insight during a brainstorming session. Credit: NASA/Sean Smith
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It was a brainstorming session in the Navigation Center, and the brains present were storming out a mission: "Make NASA Cool.""A lot of stuff goes on around here that nobody knows about," Midgett said.
Ideas ran back and forth, as they have for weeks on a Wiki that, as of Friday morning, had 42 thoughts toward accomplishing the mission.
Some of the Wiki ideas were similar to those the 12-15 people put together in the Nav Center on Thursday, some employees staying for more than three hours, others coming in, leaving an idea, then departing for other tasks.
Reality television is apparently cool, if you buy the ratings, so why not buy into the medium?
"A reality TV show about NASA, a rocket launch, time on the (International Space Station), etc.," was one suggestion on the Wiki.
Others in a similar theme followed, as did using existing shows as a platform.
"Make NASA a stop on 'Amazing Race,' " wrote Melvin Ferebee, who also is leading Participatory Exploration, another of the nine initiatives designed to enhance the agency's message among the younger generation.
"Amazing Race" is an Emmy Award-winning show on CBS in which people compete in venues around the world.
"You get back in country and go to (Johnson Space Center) and get in the water tank and do something," Ferebee said, pointing to the tank that is one of the training aids for astronauts.
"You go to (Kennedy Space Center) and climb the launch tower and ride the cable down," he added.
The idea is attention, promotion, but not all of it involved selling the agency to television.
"Have NASA employees speak to schools," Ferebee wrote.
It's done through speakers bureaus and other outreach tools, but he wants to take it a step further: "19,000 employees equal 19,000 schools."
"To get the kid, you've got to get the teacher," Ferebee said, suggesting an expansion to existing outreach programs involving educators.
The ideas flowed.
"NASA meatballs on the highway to let people know we're here," Monica Barnes of SRO suggested, borrowing the notion from the tiger paws that welcome visitors to South Carolina to Clemson University.
"Put a beacon on the ISS so that it is more visible to the naked eye," was another idea.
Chris Giersch, who co-hosts NASA Edge, pointed to ESPN, which markets itself through 17 different television and radio venues, and suggested more relevant NASA TV and "cooler" programming and presentation.
To a suggestion that NASA is still symbolized by the success of Apollo, which happened 40 years ago, Giersch offered Apple Computers. "They keep reinventing themselves," he said.
Lessons can come from anywhere.
"How about Nike?" offered Rich Antcliff, head of the Strategic Relationships Organization. "Sneakers aren't cool. But Nike is. 'Just do it.' "
"Why can't NASA get a tagline?" Giersch asked.
The difficulty with the process is that it was conducted within the center, where employees tend to know and appreciate the work done; and where those employees are a bit older than the market that the agency is seeking through the center's "Make NASA Cool" initiative. It's difficult for a room full of 25-60-somethings to determine what an 18-year-old thinks is cool.
It was plain to those in the room that research had to be conducted with part of the market. "I don't think that we can do anything to make NASA cool because it already is cool," said Joey Pontheiux, who works in Advanced Engineering Environments. He brought up the example of his daughter, messaging friends on her cell phone about what's cool and what isn't.
That's the point, Giersch said, pointing to emerging media that "NASA Edge" seeks to engage.
The task is more difficult because "cool is a moving target," Antcliff offered.
And so, these days, are media outlets.
The easy answer is also the hardest. If NASA was defined in the public eye by Apollo's success, "putting a man on Mars is like putting a man on the moon," Ponthieux said.
But that's decades in the future, and the mission is making NASA cool now, or at least promoting its "coolness." The people who buy into the notion are the people who will be working with the agency when that first Mars launch is made. They are, perhaps, some of the same people who are finishing college and opting to work for Yahoo, AOL and Google now.
"We want the best and brightest to work at NASA in 10 years and 20 years," said Rory Collins, of the Science Directorate, who is charged with heading up the initiative, which will post the ideas to a center-wide audience and seek participation through voting before presenting the results to the Center Leadership Council.
"Let's take a trip to Mars. Our destiny is to the stars." --Aldrin's "Rocket Experience"
NASA Langley Research Center
Managing Editor: Jim Hodges
Executive Editor and Responsible NASA Official: H. Keith Henry
Editor and Curator: Denise Lineberry