JSC, NASA does science too, right?

My last disappointment with the space centre museum was in the content. Don’t get me wrong – I was thrilled to learn about the Apollo missions, and to hear 10 minutes about the current shuttle mission. I would have loved to learn more, though. I heard a lot of “and with Orion we will go back to the Moon”. No one explained Orion. There was no discussion of the goals. There was lots of “we need to go back to the Moon for scientific advances” but no one told me what that science is.

NASA, what happened after Apollo 11 in 1969? Your museum at JSC leads me to believe that your greatest accomplishment, and the only thing worth talking about, occurred when my parents were half my age. You still didn’t tell me what we learned from that – several Apollo missions brought back 50lbs of rocks. What did they do with those rocks? Why do we care?

NASA, what did the space shuttles do after their creation in the early 80’s? If we didn’t start building the ISS until 1998, what were you doing before that? Most of all, why? What was the point? What science did you glean from it? There were occasional mentions of the Gemini missions. Tell me about those. This 20 year old doesn’t remember them.

NASA, I hear rumours of other space science that gets done with your name attached. What’s this noise about Cassini? The Voyager missions? MESSENGER? The Mariner missions? Tell me about the Mars rovers, past and present!

I know that Johnson is where the astronauts go for training, but NASA does more than manned space missions. Don’t you? If you’re going to go all patriotic about the US space efforts, don’t forget some of the coolest things you’ve done!

Most of all, JSC, you’ve failed to convince me that NASA did anything worth mentioning before Apollo 11, or after that before the ISS. You have failed to explain to me why I should care that you want to send astronauts to the Moon. You talk proudly of the science that can be done on the ISS, but you never tell me what it is.

In a museum that is clearly designed for an older age-group with lengthier attention spans for more complicated concepts, you treated me like a child.

NASA, JSC, you need to inspire me and the other young guests to go into science and engineering. All you’ve done at this museum is teach me that you once were great.

Leave a Reply